If you have never heard of the term "presence" in the online environment then you may not realize some of the strategies you use as an Instructional Designer are actually implemented to create "presence" in your training. To have a basic understanding lets look at what this term means. In 2006, D. Garrison first presented the idea of three types of "presence" that should be present in an online learning environment: Social, Cognitive and Teaching presence. Please view the video below to get a basic understanding of each term and how it can apply in the online environment.
Video created by C Daugherty using Prezi Video.
To view in a larger window please visit: What Is Online Presence?
Each of these three terms can and should be implemented into an online training environment for maximum effectiveness. This shouldn't really come as a surprise, but can be tricky to balance depending on the training, audience and information being presented.
A few examples of how I incorporate a social, cognitive and teaching presence in both my online classroom and the adult professional learning course I facilitate are below. If you notice one or more "presence" are used in conjunction with one another to help create a more well balanced training experience.
A few examples of how I incorporate a social, cognitive and teaching presence in both my online classroom and the adult professional learning course I facilitate are below. If you notice one or more "presence" are used in conjunction with one another to help create a more well balanced training experience.
Social Presence:
The very first thing my students see when they log in their online course is my instructor information. I connect my profile image with my contact information so they know I am a real person. This also helps them when I use audio/video feedback through the course to connect a voice to a face.
I encourage my students to set up profile images in canvas as well so I can make connections with them and their work. Additionally, I build relationships with my students through various communication methods to alleviate the "virtual distance" that they may feel when they are first enrolled in an online course.
Canvas has many social presence tools built in like allowing the profile images to be uploaded and canvas messaging. Additional tools I use to create a social presence in my classroom are: Padlet, Remind and even in some cases Twitter chats can be used in real time!
The very first thing my students see when they log in their online course is my instructor information. I connect my profile image with my contact information so they know I am a real person. This also helps them when I use audio/video feedback through the course to connect a voice to a face.
I encourage my students to set up profile images in canvas as well so I can make connections with them and their work. Additionally, I build relationships with my students through various communication methods to alleviate the "virtual distance" that they may feel when they are first enrolled in an online course.
Canvas has many social presence tools built in like allowing the profile images to be uploaded and canvas messaging. Additional tools I use to create a social presence in my classroom are: Padlet, Remind and even in some cases Twitter chats can be used in real time!
Image taken from my course and modified using Powerpoint
Cognitive Presence:
For the teachers I work with, cognitive presence is a huge component to the training. We offer very specific assignments that require the teachers to reflect on current face to face teaching practices and how they will change and/or apply these practices in the online classroom.
Additionally, assignments are offered to increase their awareness of how to meet the needs of all learners in the online classroom. One such assignment involves the teachers going to the misunderstood minds interactive activity. This activity allows the teacher to see first hand what certain students may struggle with when diagnosed with certain learning disabilities. The teacher must complete the activity and then answer a set of questions that not only makes them reflect on how they have approached this before but how they will change and adapt their methods in the online classroom.
Example of questions used to confirm the importance of this activity and promote reflection from their own teaching practices:
- What activities did you choose to complete? What were your responses? Your reactions?
- Does your experience change the way you might view students who need IEP/504 modifications?
- What differentiation techniques might have helped you when completing these activities?
(You can be specific about one activity) - What modifications might have helped?
- Reply to at least two other TnT posts
If you have never tried the misunderstood minds activity before, please take a moment and look through the activities. It is truly a remarkable and eye opening experience that allows you as the instructor to see exactly what may be happening with a struggling student.
Image taken from my course and modified using Powerpoint
Teaching Presence:
For my students and the teachers I train, very personalized feedback with additional instruction is offered over various mediums. Padlets and google surveys are used to help with a social presence in the beginning of the training but also help me to understand my audience for a teaching presence purpose.
I utilize several of the Canvas tools built into our courses like audio/media comments and Canvas messaging to deliver direct instruction and additional help, review, expansion on topics being covered. The example below shows how I connect written reminders with audio comments for each student. I am combining communication methods with direct instruction via audio reminders.
Additionally, I use many various external digital tools like screencast-o-matic, Prezi (as demonstrated above), animoto, telegami, etc to deliver very direct instruction and personalized feedback.
Image taken from my course and modified using Powerpoint
References
Anderson, T., Rourke, L., Garrison, D. and Archer, W., (2001). Assessing Teaching Presence in a Computer Conferencing Context. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 5 (2), 1-17
Establishing an Online Teaching Presence. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.duq.edu/about/centers-and-institutes/center-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-and-learning-at-duquesne/establishing-an-online-teaching-presence
Garcia-O'Neill, E. (2016, January 15). Social Presence In Online Learning: 7 Things Instructional Designers Can Do To Improve It. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/social-presence-in-online-learning-7-things-instructional-designers-can-improve
Garrison, D. R. (2019). Online Community Of Inquiry Review: Social, Cognitive, And Teaching Presence Issues. Online Learning, 11(1). doi: 10.24059/olj.v11i1.1737
Morrison, D. (2014, February 10). Critical thinking in the Online Classroom. Retrieved from https://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/critical-thinking-in-the-online-learning-classroom/
Thanks for sharing your examples! What sort of issues - if any - have you run into in training others to address presence in their courses?How are you getting buy-in?
ReplyDeleteDr Duggan, I think because the different types pf presence above are requirements and pillars for my online courses we aren't given much choice because they have to be present, however, when training new teachers they are truly shocked at how much goes into our courses and how much they are expected to put in (not content wise) but relationship building with the students!
DeleteCoston,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is well written and I enjoyed the visuals that you added throughout. I am been looking at improving several of my images within blogs by using GIFs. Have you ever created them and if so, do you think they would be appropriate to use within blog postings to help demonstrate accessing/creating presence in an online setting?
Don't you love how Canvas already has several tools to use which allows us the ease of increasing our "presence" in an online setting? Using the audio and video tools are great ways to give feedback, instruction, and reminders to students. Many of my students have made comments back that they enjoy my audio and visual feedback more than my written comments.
Thank you for sharing wondering insight when referring to the types of presence needed for a successful online course.
Hey Kristen,
DeleteI love Gifs when used as simulations (like the amoeba sisters gifs) but overall I do not use a lot because for some accessibility reasons in my courses they are not the best to use. I have not thought about using it in my blog presence though but can see the appeal and how a Gif could draw attention to certain areas you may want to highlight more! I will have to check them out more!
Your video explains the three presences very well!
ReplyDeleteYou have a strong social presence and it feels like you are able to close the distance gap.
Thank you for introducing Misunderstood Minds, what a wealth of information! it is a powerful support tool for teachers, parents and anybody! Very eye opening on how students can struggle in the classroom and in life. The website explains the Attention Control Systems of mental energy, processing and production and gives specific strategies for communicating about and dealing with each.
I find many of my clients are creatives which is why they great as entrepreneurs. They are outside the box thinkers who can create without restraint. Many of us are somewhere on that scale of having “misunderstood minds”. The second link below by G.E. Dickman discusses the link between learning disabilities and behavior viewed more from the problematic side, while the third link by Fast Company gives positive examples of how being early disruptors can actually benefit us later in life. Claire Cole, a project manager at Office Depot is quoted: “We see a lot of articles these days about the necessity of being a rule breaker in order to become an entrepreneur.”
Also, I find spellcheck is one of my favorite tools as I even type dyslexic.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/attentiondiffs.html
http://dickmanalliance.com/the-link-between-learning-disabilities-and-behavior/
https://www.fastcompany.com/90409691/these-are-the-childhood-traits-that-may-impact-future-success?utm_campaign=eem524:524:s00:20191002_fc&utm_medium=Compass&utm_source=newsletter
Gabriele, Thank you for the additional resources. One area I am digging into now is how to meet the learning needs of adults that may have undiagnosed learning disabilities. I think it is very common for those over 40 to have struggled in school but never gotten a formal diagnosis to help them. I think by designing trainings with this in mind we can meet more learner needs and have less unintended discrimination among participants.
DeleteCoston,
ReplyDeleteI really like the flow of your blog. The different tools you used helped to showcase the three presences. Your Prezi video did a great job of explaining the presences and how each are used online.
Thank you!! I love the addition of the video feature of prezi now! Sometimes they give me headache just clicking through so the video feature is a nice bonus to have now to eliminate this.
Delete