Fostering presence and interaction in online teaching

An Ignatian approach to online education fosters student- centerdness, interaction, and reflection

Effective online teaching fosters three types of presence: social,

teaching, cognitive

Social presence

Social presence is the ability of learners and instructors to project themselves socially and emotionally as 'real' people (i.e., their full personality)

Social presence is the ability to present oneself socially and affectively in a virtual environment.

Teaching presence

Teaching presence is the instructor's virtual representation of him/herself as a teacher, manifested in course materials, such as the syllabus and assignments, as well as in structural choices, such as the selection of readings, the presentation and ordering of content, and the management of discussions.

Cognitive presence

Cognitive presence is the extent to which learners are able to reflect, think critically and solve meaningful problems.

To achieve cognitive presence, an online instructor must integrate student-centered instructional strategies that help students construct their knowledge through reflection, collaboration, and problem solving

Presence and types of interaction

Student-Student Interaction

Student-Content Interaction

Student-Teacher Interaction

Student-teacher interaction

Activities for student-instructor interaction might include: • Instructor feedback on assignments/projects• Virtual office hours • Meetings with small groups/team• Asynchronous discussion board exchanges moderated by

the instructor.• Synchronous discussions moderated by the instructor

Student-teacher interaction: samples

Video introduction

Response to student introductions

Voicethread response to student

student-student interaction

Activities for student-student interaction might include:• student introductions • informal conversation (the water cooler)• collaborative activities such as group discussions, small-

group projects, group problem-solving assignments, or peer critiques.

• student-student feedback

Student-student interaction: student blog

Student-student interaction: Googledocs

Student-student interaction: webconferencing

Student-content interaction

Activities for student-content interaction might include :

• Reading from a text, article• Web-based resource• Completion of an activity or online exercise• Student-generated content

Student-content interaction: resource catalogue

Student-content interaction:Student-generated wiki

Student-content interaction: Voicethread

Sample Voicethread (NHACC)

Building presence and interaction and conveys an Ignatian philosphy of online education and reflects established best practices in online teaching & learning

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