Definition
Trying to define social presence is a difficult matter as researchers are not in agreement themselves over what this phenomenon encompasses. There is no consistent definition for social presence within research literature yet. Social presence has been defined as “a measure of the feeling of community that a learner experiences in an online environment” (Tu and McIssac, 2002). Other researchers have defined social presence as the awareness of others in an interaction combined with an appreciation of the interpersonal aspects of that interaction (Short, Williams, and Christie, 1976; Rice, 1993; Walther, 1992). Gunawardena (1995) argued that social presence varied in perception and was a subjective issue based upon objective qualities. Yet in spite of these variations, the role of social presence in the success of students is agreed upon and the need to design for it is in agreement.
Looking deeper in to the definitions and explanations of social presence, researchers have offered that social presence is more of a combination of factors that present themselves in a way so as to develop greater intimacy within a group that has a positive effect on the individual’s affective filters. Several researchers have suggested that intimacy and immediacy are contributing factors to social presence with intimacy defined as a measure of communication involving eye contact, proximity and body language (Argyle and Dean, 1965; Burgeoon, et al., 1984) and immediacy defined as the psychological distance between two parties that is conveyed through verbal and nonverbal cues in speech (Walther, 1992).
Social presence was originally studied in connection with F2F, audio and interactive television encounters. The emergence of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in education and training provided an entirely new series of variables and characteristics to already existing social presence models that hitherto had not been encountered. How this new medium of connection and communication interacted with existing models and how the understanding of social presence up to that point played into providing quality in distance learning opened new research as the century turned. Our understanding of what it is and what its role is continues to grow. Yet in spite of our growing understanding of social presence, we do know that its role in distance learning is significant, its ignorance can be catastrophic, and its effective incorporation in online learning remarkable.
Read more about this topic: Social Presence Theory
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