Theme: Teaching Presence
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Teaching presence, the first theme of online learning, is the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes. (Rourke, Anderson, Garrison and Archer, 2000) |
Whew! What does that mean?
To have a presence in an online course, the teacher must consider
- basic elements of design that will connect him/herself to the learner
- specific, structured opportunities to facilitate dialogue amongst class members
- feedback mechanisms that will assure the learner that the instructor is actually aware of the work that is going on ... or not
- strategies for making the course a living entity, to give the student a reason to "come to class" on a regular basis.
What are the implications for the above points in a traditional classroom? How does this change when working with learners whom you may never meet in person?
To view a slideshow and hear from experienced online teachers regarding challenges and strategies in creating Teaching Presence, view a slideshow by clicking on the movie icon below:
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After viewing the above slideshow on Teaching Presence, which role change do you think would be the most challenging for you? Record your thoughts in your journal. |
Going Deeper:
The opening quote is from an article that explores ways to assess Teaching Presence in a Computer Conferencing Context. Little has been written about Teaching Presence in K-12 online learning. As you read through the article, reflect on how you would assess your own effectiveness in establishing Teaching Presence if you were to teach an online course.
Here are a few other articles on the role of the online teacher:
The Role of the Online Instructor/Facilitator by Z.L. Berge
Moderating educational computer conferencing by R.MasonEmoticons - a guide to symbols to show emotion in online text.
Next we will look at Social Presence.
Note: this is one page from the Calgary Board of Education's Teaching and Learning Online e-PD course. It is from a unit that examines various themes related to challenges and strategies for online teachers. In addition to teacher presence, we also examine social presence and cognitive presence. Participants in the course collaboratively design, in small groups, a project of their choosing which addresses these themes. Click here to view a sample group presentation.
