ABSTRACT

Exploring social presence could help create socially rich learning experiences in an online learning environment. To better understand social presence in online education, the present study conducted an online survey with 430 undergraduate students in the U.S. during the time of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020. Results from an EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) reveal a five-dimensional measurement of social presence in the online learning context, social richness, co-presence, actor within a medium, passive interpersonal, community within a medium. When examining how each dimension plays a role in learning experiences, results from the multiple linear regression analysis of this study suggest that social richness and co-presence are positively associated with cognitive learning, and social richness and co-presence are positively associated with affective learning. Unexpectedly, the data indicate that actor within a medium is negatively associated with cognitive and affective learning experiences. Additionally, social richness and community within a medium are positively associated with motivation to learn. Overall, the study’s findings suggest the importance of studying the multidimensional aspects of social presence because each dimension could have different roles in online learning.

摘要

探索社交存在有助于在在线学习环境中创造丰富的社交学习体验。为了更好地了解在线教育中的社会存在，本研究在 2020 年 COVID 19 大流行期间对美国的 430 名本科生进行了在线调查。EFA（探索性因素分析）的结果揭示了在线学习环境中的社会临场感、社会丰富性、共同存在、媒介中的参与者、被动的人际交往、媒介中的社区。在考察每个维度如何在学习体验中发挥作用时，本研究的多元线性回归分析结果表明，社会丰富性和共存性与认知学习正相关，社会丰富性和共存与情感学习正相关。出乎意料的是，数据表明媒介中的演员与认知和情感学习经历负相关。此外，媒介中的社会丰富性和社区与学习动机呈正相关。总体而言，该研究的结果表明了研究社交存在的多维度方面的重要性，因为每个维度在在线学习中可能具有不同的作用。