Course Presence

Boettcher and Conrad state that "presence is the most important best practice for an online course" (53). Presence is understood in three dynamics - social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence as laid out by Garrison, Anderson and Archer at the University of Calgary (Boettcher and Concrad, 53). The degree to which the student fills fully engaged in an online course correlates strongly with the effectiveness of producing good interaction between the three presences. 

Social Presence
Social presence occurs when students begin to view other students and the professor as real people, thus building trust and interaction. Social presence is developed by creating interaction between students that would naturally occur in a traditional class. A good way to accomplish this is by developing ways that students can project their personality into the classroom environment using techniques such as threads, collaborative assignments and question/answer sessions that allow and encourage students to share personal perspectives, feelings and opinions.

Cognitive Presence
Cognitive presence refers to the engagement that the student has with the course content, particularly in direct interaction with the professor. A student who is cognitively present identifies well with the course goals and objectives, making them their own. This second stage is crucial. Students must embrace any course objectives as their own personal objectives in order to attain the highest level of interaction with the course content. Cognitive presence builds on the pre-existing knowledge of students that they possess prior to the beginning of course and it also builds on the knowledge that the students accumulate during the course.

Teaching Presence
Teaching presence refers to two difference aspects of the professor's presence - (1) the course content and (2) the ongoing instructive interaction throughout the course. The teaching presence that constitutes course content is established prior to the course before the professor knows the individual students and their needs. This type of teaching presence is established based on general objectives of the course. The second type of teaching presence reacts to the specific needs of the individual students in the course. Once the course begins, the professor might become aware that individual students are not as far along in the field of knowledge as previously expected or that the opposite is true, that the student is actually further along than expected.

Interaction of the Three Presences
Overall course presence is an interaction of the three presences described above. The goal is for an inviting social presence to foster a healthy atmosphere to provide for cognitive presence that builds on a strong teaching presence. The professor sets the tone for this interaction, but the effectiveness of course presence rests within commitment of all participants to the process. 

Blog Assignment:  
Since this course is specifically about developing online instruction, share with the course what degree of experience you have in teaching online. Please share the number of course that you have taught online and if you have taught more than one class what is something that you have changed from previous experience(s) to a more recent experience.