Social presence Archives - EduTec Science

Jan122024 by Joshua WeidlichNo Comments

New Pub: Toward a comprehensive framework of social presence

Computer-supported collaborative learning, Higher Education, Journal, Literature review, New Pub, Open access, Special Issue

Today, students in higher education likely come into contact with different modes of learning, e.g. online learning, blended learning, and, increasingly, hybrid learning. To the extent that communication is mediated by technology in these learning modes, students can experience varying degrees of social presence with regard to their peers. Social presence refers to the feeling that others are 'real' and 'close' despite the physical separation. Especially in learning scenarios that require communication and collaboration, social presence is a crucial consideration. Despite this, research on social presence is fragmented and many other relevant theoretical accounts, while potentially informative, have been neglected. This paper, coauthored by Karel Kreijns, Jane Yau, Joshua Weidlich, and Armin Weinberger, published in Frontiers in Education, Section Digital Education, attempts to provide a comprehensive account of social presence…

Nov132023 by Joshua WeidlichNo Comments

New Pub: Social Presence and Psychological Distance

Computer-supported collaborative learning, Empirical Study, Higher Education, Journal, Learning Design, New Pub, Publication

Social presence –the sense that others are 'real' and 'there'– is a key variable in understanding interpersonal dynamics in online learning environments. As students are separated in time and place, social cues are diminished and communication is affected. This is particularly relevant for social learning scenarios like computer-supported collaborative learning. Despite its relevance and decades of research, there are still many gaps in our understanding of social presence. In order to arrive at a more holistic understanding of social presence, it would be valuable to better understand how this experience fits within larger psychological frameworks. One particularly well-established psychological framework is Construal Level Theory by Trope & Liberman (2010). It posits that our mental representations of objects, events, and persons (i.e. construals) are affected by the psychological distance between us…

Oct232021 by Joshua WeidlichNo Comments

New Pub: Personality and Social Presence

Higher Education, Journal, Publication

Social presence is an important and well-established construct in learning scenarios that make use of online-based technology to mediate learning activities and communication among students, like online learning and distance education. Researchers and practitioners refer to social presence to better understand the socio-emotional dimension of these learning scenarios and/or improve the quality of the experience. As a construct that has emerged out of a socio-psychological research tradition, social presence has mostly been understood as a state variable, the result of situative/contextual factors, like the communication media, group size, or instructional design. What has been entirely overlooked is the possibility that some students are inherently more prone to experiencing social presence, while others may be less inclined to these perceptions. This study published in Open Education Studies, authored by Joshua Weidlich,…

Oct182021 by Joshua WeidlichNo Comments

New Pub: Social Presence: Conceptualization and Measurement

Empirical Study, Journal, Literature review, Publication

Social presence is an important and well-established construct for learning scenarios that make use of online-based technology to mediate learning activities and communication among students. Researchers and practitioners refer to social presence to better understand the socio-emotional dimension of these learning scenarios and/or improve the quality of the experience. However, many researchers in the past have pointed to the shaky foundation that is the conceptualization and measurement of social presence. In other words, there is no agreement on what social presence actually *is* and, consequently, how it should be measured. This makes it difficult to cumulatively build on prior research, possibly explaining the conflicting findings and the rather slow progress this field of research has been making. Our publication in Educational Psychology Review, authored by Karel Kreijns, Kate Xu, and…