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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