This study examined the perceived social presence of postsecondary learners enrolled in online learning environment. More specifically, the study investigated whether facilitation, affective responses, involvement, course design, community size, age, and gender significantly predicted perceived social presence in postsecondary learners enrolled in online learning environments. The study also sought to investigate the relative importance of predictor(s) facilitation, affective responses, involvement, course design, community size, age, and gender in accounting for social presence in online learning environment.
The data were collected from 900 students randomly selected from a list of 1,857 students enrolled in online learning in the spring and summer quarters of the 2005/2006 academic year in a Midwestern university. A total of 218 of the 900 students sampled responded to the online questionnaire. This represented a response rate of 24.2%.
The findings of this study showed that there was a strong positive relationship between perceived social presence, the dependent variable and the predictor variables involvement, facilitation, affective responses, community size, course design, gender, and age when combined, R = 0.834, R2 = 0.695, Adjusted R2 = 0.685, F (7, 210) = 68.379, P = 0.000. Independently, community size, gender, and age did not significantly predict perceived social presence in postsecondary learners enrolled in online learning in this study. Involvement, affective responses, facilitation, and course design were crucial factors that predicted and enhanced perceived social presence in postsecondary learners investigated in the study.
In evaluating the importance of significant predictors, affective response had the highest contribution and/or importance followed by facilitation, and involvement, respectively in accounting for perceived social presence in postsecondary learners enrolled in online learning in this study. Interestingly, in the context of other significant predictors, course design is robbed of its predictive power. In other words, course design impacts social presence through other predictors, namely, affective response, involvement, and facilitation in the case of the present study.
From the findings of the study, we might conclude that affective response, facilitation, involvement, and course design are factors that seemed important for postsecondary learners in this study who wished to relate, connect, share ideas and information, speak with one another, and establish relationships despite the physical separation. It can be interpreted to mean that what is needed and important for students to feel as part of the group or team online is how the students are involved, how the online class is facilitated, how the online class/course is designed, and the pleasant, supportive, and personable exchanges among students and among students and instructors.