ABSTRACT

Researchers have been investigating social presence in online learning for decades. However, despite this continued research, questions remain about the nature and development of social presence. The purpose of this mixed method exploratory case study was to investigate how social presence is established in online discussion forums in an asynchronous online course. The results suggest that social presence is more complicated than previously thought. In particular, situational variable such as group size, instructional task, and previous relationships influence how social presence is established and maintained in online courses. In the following paper, we report the results of our inquiry and the implications for further research and practice.

摘要

数十年来，研究人员一直在研究在线学习中的社会存在。然而，尽管进行了持续的研究，但是关于社会存在的性质和发展仍然存在疑问。这种混合方法探索性案例研究的目的是研究如何在异步在线课程中的在线讨论论坛中建立社会存在感。结果表明，社会存在比以前认为的要复杂。特别是，诸如小组规模，教学任务和以前的关系之类的情境变量会影响在线课程中如何建立和维持社交存在感。在下面的论文中，我们报告了调查的结果以及对进一步研究和实践的意义。