Beyond Being There: Practices that Establish Presence, Engage Students and Influence Intellectual Curiosity in a Structured Online Learning Environment

Abstract

To fully understand teaching presence and its implications for the intellectual climate of an online classroom it is necessary to explore the phenomenon from the perspective of the instructors who experience it. Informed by the theoretical perspective of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model, the actions, intentions and perceptions of instructors were investigated through a collective case study. The goal of this study was to examine the decision processes employed in establishing teaching presence in a structured online environment in order to make a contribution to the body of knowledge from a practical pedagogical perspective. Using the lived experiences of instructors enabled the exploration of the influence pedagogical choices had on the creation of an intellectual climate in the online context. Using semi-structured interviews as the main source of data, the study utilized the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method as an analytical tool to address concerns of rigor in the qualitative interpretation of experiential data. Results of the collective case revealed student engagement and intellectual curiosity were influenced most greatly by an instructor's active interest and passion for teaching, an ability to identify the relevance of course topics to the student, and the encouragement for a shared responsibility in the learning process. The findings showed that the shared goal of learning extended beyond the stated learning objectives and expected outcomes of a course and served as a foundation in the creation of authentic relationships between instructor and students. In addressing the overarching research question of how instructors establish teaching presence and inspire intellectual curiosity in a structured teaching environment, the findings of this study contribute to knowledge related to the nature of teaching presence and its role in setting an academic climate in an online classroom.

A systematic review of research on online teaching and learning from 2009 to 2018

“…This sub-theme was the most researched in engagement. With the development of the community of inquiry framework most of the studies in this subtheme examined social presence ( Akcaoglu & Lee, 2016 ; Phirangee & Malec, 2017 ; Wei et al, 2012 ), teaching presence ( Orcutt & Dringus, 2017 ; Preisman, 2014 ; Wisneski et al, 2015 ) and cognitive presence ( Archibald, 2010 ; Olesova et al, 2016 ).…”

Stepping back and stepping in: Facilitating learner-centered experiences in MOOCs

“…The importance of “being live” aligns closely with the existing literature on fostering presence in MOOCs ( Ferguson & Sharples, 2014 ; Kop, 2011 ; Walji et al, 2016 ; Watson et al, 2016 ), and the actions of “amplifying” and “modeling” also directly match with two of the elements of Cormier and Siemens' (2010) typology. The actions of “giving up control” and “distributing facilitation” serve as a potentially useful way of negotiating some of the most common challenges described in the literature, namely the overwhelming size of MOOCs and the near impossibility of interacting with each participant as you would in an in-person setting ( Ntourmas et al, 2019 ; Orcutt & Dringus, 2017 ; Sánchez-Vera et al, 2015 ). Lastly, by presenting these facilitator actions not in isolation but as the result of a constant negotiation between pedagogical aspirations and the affordances of the MOOC medium, these findings respond to a need for more expansive conceptions of what teaching and learning in MOOCs can look like (e.g.…”

Impactful Leadership Traits of Virtual Leaders in Higher Education

“…There is an increased pressure for faculty and administrators to be accountable for learning outcomes and retention. That being said, it would behoove faculty and faculty leaders to be engaged in improving pedagogical strategies by implementing techniques and best practices that are effective in producing improved student outcomes in the online environment (Orcutt & Dringus, 2017). Throughout the industry, pressure exists for higher education entities to be accountable for the achievement of learning outcomes and retention.…”