1. Long (K)nights at the round table:
Our quest for the social-presence grail
Joni Dunlap | joni.dunlap@ucdenver.edu
Patrick Lowenthal | patrick.lowenthal@ucdenver.edu
Ellen Stevens | ellen.stevens@ucdenver.edu
2. From Joni:
Good afternoon, everyone!
I am an associate professor of instructional
design and technology in the School of Education
and Human Development, and the Assistant
Director for Teaching Effectiveness with the
Center for Faculty Development on the
downtown Denver campus.
My teaching and research interests focus on the
use of sociocultural approaches to enhance adult
learners’ development and experience in
postsecondary settings.
I live in Littleton, with my husband and two
amazing daughters – Gillian (7) and Raeghan (4).
3. From Patrick:
Howdy!
I am an academic technology coordinator at CU
Online. I am also a doctoral student in the School
of Education where I also teach online in the
Information & Learning Technologies program.
My research focuses on teaching and learning
online – specifically, how people communicate,
connect, and build community in online
environments.
I currently live in Westminster with my wife, two
girls (Jordan &Ashlyn) and two dogs.
11. What Do You Think?
How important is social presence:
(a) very important
(b) important
(c) not that important
(d) waste of time
(e) what’s social presence?
21. Our Big Question
What are students’ perceptions of
various social-presence strategies
in an online course?
22. Phase 1
Phase 2
“What Survey on
aspects of the perceptions
course helped of social
you feel presence
connected to
your course
colleagues?
To me?”
Next phase
Follow-up
semi-
structured
interviews
with subset of
students
23. What Do You Think?
Which do students like more:
(a) high-tech strategies?
OR
(b) low-tech strategies?
24. Phase 1 results (1 of 5)
• In general, the discussions helped me feel connected to
my course colleagues. The discussions also helped me
feel connected to you (Joni). In addition, the feedback I
received on my projects helped quite a bit as well.
• The structured discussions that we had always help
me, sometimes I may miss a point that someone else
may see, so I like that and the various points other
students make. I also like the peer review on the
projects, I think that helped me feel connected. I think
you did a great job with interacting with the
discussions and any email I sent you answered quickly,
so I felt connected.
25. Phase 1 results (1 of 5)
• In general, the discussionshelped me feel connected to
my course colleagues. The discussions also helped me
feel connected to you (Joni). In addition, the feedback I
received on my projects helped quite a bit as well.
• The structured discussions that we had always help
me, sometimes I may miss a point that someone else
may see, so I like that and the various points other
students make. I also like the peer review on the
projects, I think that helped me feel connected. I think
you did a great job with interacting with the
discussions and any email I sent you answered quickly,
so I felt connected.
26. Phase 1 results (2 of 5)
• The part of the course that made me feel
connected to the other students was the peer
reviews. The aspect of the course that helped me
feel connected to the instructor was the feedback
I received from the instructor and the follow-up
email exchanges.
• I really liked being an integral part of reviewing. I
felt (especially in certain assignment) that I really
got some insight into how the other students
interpreted the assignments and put their own
life (either work or other parts of their life) into
the assignment.
27. Phase 1 results (2 of 5)
• The part of the course that made me feel
connected to the other students was the peer
reviews. The aspect of the course that helped me
feel connected to the instructor was the feedback
I received from the instructor and the follow-up
email exchanges.
• I really liked being an integral part of reviewing. I
felt (especially in certain assignment) that I really
got some insight into how the other students
interpreted the assignments and put their own
life (either work or other parts of their life) into
the assignment.
28. Phase 1 results (3 of 5)
• The introductory music activity was absolutely
awesome to help in getting to know people.
Many of us have worked together the past few
semesters, but this helped shed a lot of light
of a more personal nature about their lives. I
would also say reading and reviewing others
assignments and postings also helped
indirectly connect....
29. Phase 1 results (3 of 5)
• The introductory music activity was absolutely
awesome to help in getting to know people.
Many of us have worked together the past few
semesters, but this helped shed a lot of light
of a more personal nature about their lives. I
would also say reading and reviewing others
assignments and postings also helped
indirectly connect....
30. Phase 1 results (4 of 5)
I really LOVE twittering with everyone. It
really made me feel like we knew each other
more and were actually in class together.
The Soundtrack of Your Life: It was a creative
way to introduce ourselves to each other that
communicated something about ourselves
instead of using words. I thought the Google
Doc activities were an excellent way to express
ourselves freely for others to read freely about
our expressions.
31. Phase 1 results (4 of 5)
I really LOVE twittering with everyone. It really
made me feel like we knew each other more
and were actually in class together.
The Soundtrack of Your Life: It was a creative
way to introduce ourselves to each other that
communicated something about ourselves
instead of using words. I thought the Google
Doc activities were an excellent way to express
ourselves freely for others to read freely about
our expressions.
32. Phase 1 results (5 of 5)
In terms of relating to Joni, I felt your
contributions to discussions and commentary
were obviously the biggest way to get your
thoughts on our work. I would periodically check
your blogs to review your thoughts, and the
artwork you chose to illustrate each week did
give some ideas as to where you are coming from
or whom you are.
33. Phase 1 results (5 of 5)
In terms of relating to Joni, I felt your contributions
to discussions and commentary were obviously
the biggest way to get your thoughts on our
work. I would periodically check your blogs to
review your thoughts, and the artwork you chose
to illustrate each week did give some ideas as to
where you are coming from or whom you are.
34. Phase 1
Phase 2
“What Survey on
aspects of the perceptions
course helped of social
you feel presence
connected to
your course
colleagues?
To me?”
Next phase
Follow-up
semi-
structured
interviews
with subset of
students
35. Overly Confident
How confident were we that students
preferred high-tech strategies?
(a) Making demands like rock stars
(b) Tweeting about our findings
(c) Worried that it would all fall apart, styming our
chances at fame and fortune
37. Connected to Instructor: Top 10
General “how-to” screencasts M=3.73
One-on-one emails M=3.67
Trouble shooting “how-to” videos M=3.55
Detailed written feedback M=3.5
Instructor bios M=3.47
Screencast feedback on assignments M=3.45
Adobe Connect synchronous sessions M=3.36
5-minute phone conversation M=3.33
Previous relationship with instructor M=3.3
Digital storytelling M=3.25
38. Connected to Peers: Top 10
Digital storytelling M=3.31
One-on-one emails M=3.14
Previous relationshipw/ peers M=3.07
Access to peers projects M=3.07
Virtual Paper Bag: Story M=2.88
Adobe Connect synchronous sessions M=2.79
Virtual Paper Bag: Five photos in Flickr M=2.78
Peer reviews M=2.67
Virtual Paper Bag: Soundtrack M=2.56
Threaded discussions M=2.5
39. Connected to Instructor: Bottom 5
Twitter M=1.79
Top 100 List of Design Guidelines M=1.89
Just ask Zoltar M=2.00
Superhero Powers M=2.13
Course Overview Videos M=2.14
40. Connected to Peers: Bottom 5
Twitter M=1.54
Just ask Zoltar M=1.89
Top 100 List of Design Guidelines M=2.00
Superhero Powers M=2.11
Instructor’s Feedback on Other’s M=2.25
work
41. Connected to Instructor: Effective
What was the most effective at helping you feel
connected to your instructor?
High-tech:
•Adobe Connect synchronous sessions
•How-to screencasts
42. Connected to Instructor: Effective
What was the most effective at helping you feel
connected to your instructor?
Low-tech:
•Instructor bios
•5-minute phone conversation
•One-on-one emails
•Detailed written feedback
43. Connected to Peers: Effective
What was the most effective at helping you feel
connected to your peers?
High-tech:
•Threaded discussions
•The Virtual Paper Bag
•Digital storytelling
44. Connected to Peers: Effective
What was the most effective at helping you feel
connected to your peers?
Low-tech:
•Peer review
•Access to each other’s projects
•One-on-one emails
45. Connected to Instructor: Not
What was the least effective at helping you feel
connected to your instructor?
High-tech:
•Twitter
•Threaded discussions
•Course overview videos
46. Connected to Instructor: Not
What was the least effective at helping you feel
connected to your instructor?
Low-tech:
•No comments provided
47. Connected to Peers: Not
What was the least effective at helping you feel
connected to your peers?
High-tech:
•Twitter
•Top 100 List
•Musical activities
48. Connected to Peers: Not
What was the least effective at helping you feel
connected to your peers?
Low-tech:
•Providing peer review feedback
49. What Would You Do?
Given these results,
what would you do next?
a) Stop teaching online
b) Collect more data
50. Phase 1
Phase 2
“What Survey on
aspects of the perceptions
course helped of social
you feel presence
connected to
your course
colleagues?
To me?”
Next phase
Follow-up
semi-
structured
interviews
with subset of
students
51. Next Phase (Phase 3)
• Semi-structured interviews with four students with
high SP scores, four students with low SP scores
– In an online course, how important do you think feeling
connected to your instructor is as well as getting a
sense that your instructor is "there" and "real"? Why?
What types of technologies and learning activities
help?
– In an online course, how important do you think feeling
connected to your peers is as well as getting a sense
that they are "there" and "real"? Why? What types of
technologies and learning activities help?
52. Discussion
• The two phases led to different results;
the quest isn’t over
• Not all strategies are weighted the same
• Is there a right combination, and/or
saturation point?
• Low-tech solutions are a good approach?
• Each online course may need a different
roundtable
So, what if we just delivered the whole session this way? How would you feel? What would your reaction be? [Make folks share their thoughts]Image source: http://playagrill.wordpress.com/2010/08/29/was-there-really-a-man-named-jose-cuervo/
Slam dunk course story
Define social presence.Social presence is a theory that explains the ability of people to present themselves as "real people" through a communication medium. Now a central concept in online learning, researchers have shown—to varying degrees—a relationship between social presence and student satisfaction, social presence and the development of a community of learners, and social presence and perceived learning.Image source: http://tvnewswatch.blogspot.com/2010/08/tv-is-bad-for-health-psychologist-says.html
So what were you thinking about with this slide? PLThis image has to do with our desire to bridge the transactional distance, to have more personal relationships with students. Does the image not work? JCDPhoto attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jtrant/2414228084/
So, we started pulling together and experimenting with various high- and low-tech social-presence strategies that would help us attend to social-presence needs.
But, we were also very mindful of how much time it can take to establish social presence, and had in mind so many strategies for tackling this goal, that we were concerned that our efforts would lead to us being tied to the computer at all hours of the day and night.Image source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oFN5FV7Qr9c/SckVca2J-xI/AAAAAAAACP4/DnvStGTQaBQ/s400/monitor+flipped.jpg
Quest begins Through informal inquiry, we received positive comments from students about the use of these strategies to enhance social presence and help them feel more connected to us as their professors, each other, and the course in general. However, during more formal data collection, we have received results that tell a somewhat different story, leading us to wonder if low-tech solutions are more impactful than high-tech solutions.Image source: http://www.graphpaper.com/2007/02-05_the-holy-grail-of-information-architecture
Ask audience a poll:
Just like the purpose of the roundtable where everyone who sits at is equal (no one sits at the head of the table), we initially gave all of the strategies we were using equal weight in our courses. To give you an idea of the types of strategies we’ve tried and/or use:Digital StoriesSynchronous sessionsVideoSuperheroSoundtrackPhone call
What video is this? PLSorry, my digital storytelling video. So, who’s computer are we using? I can bring the story on a thumb drive and transfer it over. However, is it too long at 3 or so minutes? JCD
Synchronous sessions
Began using all kinds of personalized videos from video announcements, to general how-to videos, to individual one-on-one videos
[Let’s get interaction here… we could ask for songs that get you motivated, energized? Or we could do the lyrics game?]PL, What you want to do here?
<telephone…what I want to do is actually call you, and you and I have a pretend phone call>Image source: http://gretachristina.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341bf68b53ef0120a594d455970c-popupThis is actually associated with the 5-Minute Phone Call…so do you want to put that title here, or keep it a secret?
PL: bring up a twitter window, post something, etc.???
It was time for a closer look so we began to formally investigate which strategies were better than the rest.
So did you change this for the third one to be lower than the rest? If so, that is fine. If not, I can change it back. PLI did lower it because we haven’t done it…was trying to make it look different. But feel free to change it…we could line them up but make the last one a different color? JCD
Ask audience a poll:Which do students like more:(a) high-tech, such as synchronous sessions, digital stories, videos, & Twitter?(b) strategies that involve low-tech, such as email, bios, telephone, feedback, & discussions?
Ask audience a poll:I was a little confused at this one but tried to put it in a similar format. PLIf this doesn’t work, let’s fix it. What I was trying to do was provide commentary (but trying to be funny about it) about how confident we were that the high-tech solutions were the way to go…that Twitter would be a hit… So much so that we wrote articles about it, tweeted about it…we make a lot of claims about how great it was. -JCD
Not sure if we need this slide. PL
Patrick, can we show more than top 5…I need to see the data again, is there another natural cut-off? I will try to hunt it down. PLMore than five for each of these slides would be great… JCD24 items to rate.
Patrick: Most effective and least effective comments
Patrick: Most effective and least effective comments
Patrick: Most effective and least effective comments
Patrick: Most effective and least effective comments
Patrick: Most effective and least effective comments
Patrick: Most effective and least effective comments
Patrick: Most effective and least effective comments
Patrick: Most effective and least effective comments
