EnhancingSocial Presencein Online Courses

Joni Dunlap (Joni.Dunlap@UCDenver.edu)School of Education and Human DevelopmentCenter for Faculty Development

“There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication... Try the experiment of communicating, with fullness and accuracy, some experience to another, especially if it be somewhat complicated, and you will find your own attitude toward your experience changing.”

~ John Dewey

What is Social Presence?

• How will I know my learners? And, how will they know me?

• What happens to my personality?

• How do I help learners stay connected, and not disappear?

• How can I establish a supporting learning community?

0. The Basics

A Few Guidelines

• How, when, & why to contact you

• Reach out to learners: personal call, email; use names

• Discussion: when, why, group size

• Anonymous, personal, public

• Learner centered

1. Who Me?

My Slam-Dunk Course...

Let’s see an example...

• Let me tell you a story about a man named Jed...

• A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

• In the olden days...

• Once upon a time...

• I lived in Saudi Arabia as a youth

• My first car was a white 1966 Barracuda with red leather interior

• I have been a vegetarian for 25 years

• I was a member of the road crew for the Grateful Dead from 1989-1991

• I used to produce and direct on-air pledge drives for public television

• I was held up at gun point and had my car stolen as the get-away vehicle

Social Network Presence

• Thoughts on Teaching blog

• Flickr photo sets; VoiceThread stories

• Del.icio.us webliographies

• MySpace, FaceBook

• Breeze, podcasts, YouTube

2. Who You?

Write a caption for the picture below.

Mr. Picassohead

Social Network Presence

• Guided reflection blog, blog, blog

• Flickr photo sets; VoiceThread stories

• Del.icio.us webliographies

• MySpace, FaceBook

• YouTube, podcasts, Breeze

3. What about us?

Expectations ~ Trust ~ Community

Establishing Rules of Engagement, Expectations

• Using shell, wikis, Google Docs

• Providing space for connection

• Modeling “rules”

• Illustrating relevance

• Three reasons why the author is dead wrong

• All we need to know about teaching we can learn from skateboarders

• Technology replaces teachers

• Students just aren’t as dedicated as they used to be

• Social interaction isn’t possible in self-paced online training

Two of my chief concerns about teaching online have been...

1.Keeping students engaged and connected with the course and course activities, and

1.How much time it takes to keep students engaged and connected with the course and course activities.

What is your number one concern about teaching online? What ideas do you have for addressing the concerns shared by me (above) and shared by others in this forum?

The Final Post

• Groups of 4-6

• Each learner posts a quote from the text + 350 words

• Group members respond with 250 words

• Originator reacts to the responses (250 words)

The Last Word

• Groups of 4-6

• Each learner posts a quote from the text without commenting on the quote

• Group members comment with 250 words

• In 250 words, originator’s “last word” incorporates original interest with insights gleaned from reading the group members’ comments

Rotating Threads

• Set up discussion forums, with a different provocative issue to discuss in each forum.

• In groups of 4-5, have learners rotate to a new forum. Timing = e.g., Forum A on Monday, Forum B on Tuesday, and so on.

• Each group records their ideas about the issue.

• Once complete, learners revisit forums to see what other groups posted.

Give Learners Responsibility

Inspiration Points

Thank you, andklaatu barada nikto