Social presence in online discussions as a process predictor of academic performance

With the steady development of online education and online learning environments, possibilities to support social interactions between students have advanced significantly. This study examined the relationship between indicators of social presence and academic performance. Social presence is defined as students ' ability to engage socially with an online learning community. The results of a multiple regression analysis showed that certain indicators of social presence- i.e., continuing a thread and complimenting, expressing appreciation – were significant predictors of final grades in a master's level computer science online course. Moreover, the study also revealed that teaching presence – operationalized through the changes in instructional design- moderated the association between social presence and academic performance, indicating that a course design that increased the level of meaningful interactions between students had a significant impact on the development of social presence and thus, could positively affect students ' academic performance. This is especially important in situations when discussions are introduced to promote the development of learning outcomes (e.g., critical thinking) assessed in courses. Another implication of our results is that indicators of social presence can be used for early detection of students at risk of failing a course. This finding informs research and practice in the emerging field of learning analytics by prompting the opportunities to offer actionable insights into the reasons why certain students are lagging behind. These insights are grounded in indicators of the quality of social knowledge construction rather than a simple quantity of discussion posts

Social Presence And Cultural Competence In The Online Learning Environment (OLE): A Review Of Literature

In recent years growth in new technology has altered the way in which students interact with both teachers and classmates. Despite the high flexibility in online learning, Allen & Seaman (2011) explained that there is a higher dropout rate for online students as compared to a traditional classroom setting. It was found that there is lack of teacher-immediacy, teacher presence, and student interaction with teachers that may cause the high attrition rates (Martin et al., 2012). One university college of nursing has been able to combat this problem by introducing a follow-up process into the curriculum, supporting how faculty interact with each other and with their students

In the business of connecting: Nudging Students

We have long been leveraging the use of technologies to help build and sustain connections in the online environment. The pandemic opened our eyes to the value of these connections and the ability to better use technologies to facilitate them. Now we must question what more we can do. Creating communities through safe environments, building trust, showing students our ‘human’ sides through rapport building and teacher presence which may have previously been hidden in plain sight when operating in a face-to-face mode are a good start. By breaking down traditional barriers brought about through power relationships, the foundations of a quality learning experience are both created and maintained. Using case scenarios and personal narrative from two metropolitan university business schools, we explore techniques that have been used to build connections during lockdowns and begin to reconnect as we emerge from the pandemic. We found that nudging our students through initial uncomfortableness really helped them feel part of a community of learners, one which we also belonged

Students’ participation on speaking online class (a case study)

This paper aims to reveal factors that affect the students' participation in a speaking online class. The subjects are the second and fourth semester students of English department, Language and Culture Faculty, UNTAG Semarang. The research was held during the even semester of the academic year 2020/2021. The research method used in this study is a qualitative method. The data was based on the interview and the questionnaires filled by the students. Some technical issues came up in the online class such as internet connection which mostly became the hottest issue and also the device being used which was sometimes not compatible to the program used in the teaching and learning process. Those issues somehow have affected the online teaching and learning process. The other issues affected in online learning are students’ contribution and students’ condition. For those, it is hoped that the research will give a clearer explanation especially for the teachers who are struggling on teaching the online class and face a similar situation. Therefore, they can cope and handle it better. Keywords: online learning, participation, speaking clas

The Effect of Learning Style on Students’ Learning Performance During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The research aims to determine the effect of learning style on students’ performance through online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. The subjects of study are 269 chemistry education students at three universities in Indonesia. The data collection of learning style uses a Likert scale questionnaire, and learning performance is obtained from students’ grade point average. In this research, students’ learning style was divided into visual, auditorial, and kinesthetic. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics with linear regression and ANOVA tests. The learning styles positively affect student learning performance by 4.7%, while 95.3% of other factors are not examined in this study. The learning performance of students with auditory is higher than visual and kinesthetic learning styles. Based on the inferential analysis, there is no significant difference in student learning performance based on student learning styles. Therefore, students with different learning styles have the same learning performance in online learning

Online social presence osp patterns correlation with students academic performance among master of education program students

More social presence in online learning environment was seen to be one of the important predictors of students' academic performance. However, patterns of students' Online Social Presence (OSP) when using social networking tools for learning has not been widely discussed in previous studies. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the patterns of students' OSP. Moreover, this study aimed to find which patterns of students' OPS that correlated to their Academic Performance (AP). The investigated patterns of OSP are Social Respect (SR), Social Sharing (SS), Open Mind (OM), Social Identity (SI) and Intimacy (I). The quantitative methods of data collection and data analysis were used in this study. The data were collected from 65 students in one of Malaysian Public Universities. OSP Questionnaire (OSPQ) was adopted to collect the required data. The data were analyzed using SPSS software to find mean, standard deviation for each pattern of students' OSP. Moreover, Pearson's Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the correlation between each pattern of students' OSP and AP. The findings of this study showed that all patterns of OSP were highly perceived by the respondents of the study. Moreover, Pearson's Correlation Coefficient outcome showed high and significant correlation between SR, SS, OM and SI with students' AP while the correlation between Intimacy and AP was low

Maintaining and Enhancing Students' Collaborative Learning in a Japanese EFL Higher Education Context

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a huge shift towards digital forms of education. Although Japan has never gone into full lockdown, students have been strictly kept at home and socially isolated from classroom learning for extended periods. Teachers were urged to create online teaching and learning resources and began to consider the most suitable technologies to teach their courses. This paper reports on a teacher’s ongoing efforts to develop and deliver distancelearning English as a foreign language (EFL) courses in a higher education context. Drawing on a view that learning is social development, the researcher focuses on the concept of social presence in peer-to-peer communication that could enhance collaborative learning in a virtual classroom. Synchronous distance learning courses were developed utilising a text-messaging application and collaborative text-editing software with the aim to establish a communicative learning space. Analysis into the students’ interactions in Slack workspaces – a text messaging applicationindicated a variety of interpersonal, open, and cohesive communication that signalled psychological closeness in the virtual learning environment. Group discussion sessions revealed that students could feel connected to each other in the synchronous EFL courses, which demonstrated the robustness of social interaction despite physical distancing. Major difficulties lay in three areas: technology, the nature of the task, and some students’ task preferences. These three areas need to be addressed when designing and delivering a distance learning course

Chapter 6- #DigitalPowerups: Creating Safe and Brave Spaces in Online Discussions to Support Student Choice and Voice

When structured effectively, online discussions can create safe and brave spaces (Murphy et al., 2020) for students to engage in meaningful dialogue surrounding traditionally difficult topics, like gender and sexuality. Yet it can be challenging to motivate students to participate in online discussions (Moore, 2021). In this chapter, we show how the #digitalpowerups strategy provides an innovative and effective way for instructors to engage students in higher-order online discussion by developing Habits of Mind skills, such as applying past knowledge to new situations, thinking about your thinking (metacognition), listening and understanding with empathy, thinking interdependently, responding with wonder and awe, and striving for accuracy (Al-Zakri & Al-Jubair, 2020; Costa & Kallick, 2009)