From the scenarios at the beginning of this unit, you can see that e-learning is not only about computers; it is often more about interacting with people in new ways. The anxiety that learners describe is largely to do with how they will be perceived by their classmates whom they cannot see, and whether anyone 'out there' will understand them.

There is a powerful need for people to feel safe, to feel respected, and to feel socially at ease. These needs have to be met before learners can begin to engage in any meaningful way with the course content.

If your programme has a face-to-face component, it is relatively easy to help learners break the ice and form relationships. However, if the only contact between learners is online, giving learners opportunities to build relationships and get to know one another in a social sense can substantially increase learner motivation.

The term 'social presence' is sometimes used to refer to the ways in which learners perceive each other – and the teacher – as being 'real people'. Some learners give a sense of social presence more easily than others, for example by sharing personal information about themselves, making supportive comments on other learners’ personal disclosures, and filling in missing non-verbal cues (such as using 'smileys' to indicate when they have made a joke).

There are several ways in which you can encourage learners to develop social presence, for example:

  1. Provide a space in the online system for learners to create personal profiles with photos.
  2. Encourage social chit-chat – have a section in the discussion forum called 'Coffee Shop' or 'Chat' or something along those lines. Encourage people to talk about their hobbies, families and so on.
  3. Encourage learners who live in the same region to meet face-to-face and study together if possible.
  4. The way you relate to your learners can provide a model of social presence and encourage learners to do the same. Create a personal profile for yourself, including photos of your family and your cat or your latest hiking holiday, and invite responses. You may be surprised at the extent to which learners may show an interest in knowing who their tutor is. Respond to learners in the discussion forum with warmth and enthusiasm.
  5. The use of group tasks can have an enormous impact on the sense of community within the class. Many learners only start to really engage with the course once they begin working together with others, and feeling a sense of joint ownership over their work.
  6. When learners share personal triumphs and frustrations with one another, and show support and encouragement for one another through their messages, the tutor’s burden of support can be substantially reduced.
  7. Encourage the use of 'emoticons' such as :-) and :-( or informal expressions such as 'lol' (meaning 'laugh out loud') in the discussion forums and instant messaging. This is especially important when people use humour, as it is not always obvious to other readers that someone has made a joke. The use of humour will be discussed further in the next section, 'Netiquette and other niceties'.
  8. Encourage learners to ask each other for advice and to share tips on how they deal with technical difficulties in relation to participating on the course. Very often, one or two learners will emerge who have a high degree of competence and confidence in handling the technical aspects, and will play the role of 'technology stewards', advising others in the class when they get stuck. This can reduce your load enormously, and gives learners more opportunities to bond. 

Reflection

  1. How many of the above suggestions have you tried with your learners? What other suggestions do you have to increase learners' social involvement in the course?
  2. How can you ensure that the group activities you set up will help the learners to engage more deeply with the course content? (See the section on the five stages that learners go through in e-learning for a more detailed discussion of this.)

Additional resources

Establishing social presence at the beginning of an online course is crucial, but tutors also need to establaish cognitive and teaching presence. Read more about it in the article, 'Enriching online learner experience: the three presences.'

You may also find the following article interesting: Gunawardena, C., & Zittle, R. (1996). An examination of teaching and learning processes in distance education and implications for designing instruction. In M. Beaudoin (Ed.), Distance education symposium 3: Instruction, ACSDE Research Monograph No. 12 (pp. 51-63). This article gives an excellent introduction to the concept of social presence.