In this study, different degrees of synchronous and asynchronous online social interactions are investigated in the context of an online educational roleplaying simulation game that is played across multiple classrooms simultaneously to teach argumentation skills and social studies. Results from 45 K–12 middle school social studies teachers and 867 students over 3 study conditions were compared based on the degree of real-time discussion that was embedded in each condition’s version of game (i.e., two scheduled live conferences, one scheduled live conference, and asynchronous-only interactions or zero live conferences). All conditions exhibited significant small to moderate-level pre-post effect sizes, including the condition featuring asynchronous-only discussions. Additionally, the “mid-range” 1 live conference condition exhibited the greatest pre-post effect size in comparison to the other two conditions. This study demonstrates evidence for the benefits of implementing asynchronous-only discussions in digital interventions in comparison to live discussions when synchronous interaction may not be feasible. For designers, implementing both asynchronous and synchronous interactions based on available resources and feasibility can be used to maximize social presence among participants in educational roleplaying games and other virtual learning environments.
{"title":"Comparisons of Synchronous and Asynchronous Discussions in an Online Roleplaying Simulation to Teach Middle School Written Argumentation Skills","authors":"Jeremy Riel, K. Lawless, James B. Oren","doi":"10.24059/olj.v26i4.3468","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i4.3468","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, different degrees of synchronous and asynchronous online social interactions are investigated in the context of an online educational roleplaying simulation game that is played across multiple classrooms simultaneously to teach argumentation skills and social studies. Results from 45 K–12 middle school social studies teachers and 867 students over 3 study conditions were compared based on the degree of real-time discussion that was embedded in each condition’s version of game (i.e., two scheduled live conferences, one scheduled live conference, and asynchronous-only interactions or zero live conferences). All conditions exhibited significant small to moderate-level pre-post effect sizes, including the condition featuring asynchronous-only discussions. Additionally, the “mid-range” 1 live conference condition exhibited the greatest pre-post effect size in comparison to the other two conditions. This study demonstrates evidence for the benefits of implementing asynchronous-only discussions in digital interventions in comparison to live discussions when synchronous interaction may not be feasible. For designers, implementing both asynchronous and synchronous interactions based on available resources and feasibility can be used to maximize social presence among participants in educational roleplaying games and other virtual learning environments.","PeriodicalId":93037,"journal":{"name":"Online learning : the official journal of the Online Learning Consortium","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49241266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jason D Stemp, Debannita Ghosh, U. Khan, James H Boyd
Training and development programs are increasingly delivered online with numerous studies reporting no differences in learning outcomes between online and traditional learning. However, there are no established standardized methods to evaluate the effectiveness of online learning. This review aims to map the state of research around health-related education to determine what e-learning evaluation methods are being used, the strengths or deficiencies of these methods, and which are appropriate for measuring the effectiveness of online education. Databases searched were PubMed, ProQuest, Education Resources Information Centre, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Scopus, PsychInfo, and Medline. Studies were included if they were published between 2011 and 2021, reported health-related online education and included an evaluation component. Thirty studies were obtained from numerous countries with varied methodologies and designs. Participants ranged from undergraduate students to medical professionals. Evaluation methods included student participation, students’ reaction to the training program, self-efficacy, knowledge assessment, long-term performance, and the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Framework. The review identified that course evaluations, such as measuring student satisfaction scores alone, are insufficient when used to quantify learning effectiveness for online education. This was particularly important as studies are reporting these single metrics as positive effects of training interventions without justification. Suggestions within the reviewed papers were to adopt and implement an appropriate validated method within the course curriculum to evaluate learning outcomes.
{"title":"The Role of Evaluation Methods in Health-Related E-learning: A Rapid Review","authors":"Jason D Stemp, Debannita Ghosh, U. Khan, James H Boyd","doi":"10.24059/olj.v26i4.3115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i4.3115","url":null,"abstract":"Training and development programs are increasingly delivered online with numerous studies reporting no differences in learning outcomes between online and traditional learning. However, there are no established standardized methods to evaluate the effectiveness of online learning. This review aims to map the state of research around health-related education to determine what e-learning evaluation methods are being used, the strengths or deficiencies of these methods, and which are appropriate for measuring the effectiveness of online education. Databases searched were PubMed, ProQuest, Education Resources Information Centre, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Scopus, PsychInfo, and Medline. Studies were included if they were published between 2011 and 2021, reported health-related online education and included an evaluation component. Thirty studies were obtained from numerous countries with varied methodologies and designs. Participants ranged from undergraduate students to medical professionals. Evaluation methods included student participation, students’ reaction to the training program, self-efficacy, knowledge assessment, long-term performance, and the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Framework. The review identified that course evaluations, such as measuring student satisfaction scores alone, are insufficient when used to quantify learning effectiveness for online education. This was particularly important as studies are reporting these single metrics as positive effects of training interventions without justification. Suggestions within the reviewed papers were to adopt and implement an appropriate validated method within the course curriculum to evaluate learning outcomes.","PeriodicalId":93037,"journal":{"name":"Online learning : the official journal of the Online Learning Consortium","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42167201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study investigated similarities and differences in faculty’s interpretation of authentic learning and how their interpretations were manifested into their design and implementation practices in competency-based, fully online courses. From a theoretical perspective, designing for authentic learning calls for a holistic approach, which considers various aspects, such as real-world relevance, personal meaningfulness, authentic assessment, disciplinary authenticity, and teacher authenticity. In terms of similarities across participants in this study, most faculty interpreted authentic learning as including “real-world” characteristics -- that is, authentic learning is a type of learning that is situated in real-world contexts and is relevant to learners’ future careers. In terms of differences, only a few participants emphasized that authentic learning requires removing the dichotomy of a hierarchical classroom environment based on the principles of co-learning. The findings of this study also highlighted examples of authentic learning and challenges associated with implementing authentic learning in competency-based online courses. The study further provides implications for future research and practice.
{"title":"Faculty as Designers of Authentic Learning Projects in Online Courses","authors":"Victoria Abramenka-Lachheb, Gamze Ozogul","doi":"10.24059/olj.v26i4.2826","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i4.2826","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigated similarities and differences in faculty’s interpretation of authentic learning and how their interpretations were manifested into their design and implementation practices in competency-based, fully online courses. From a theoretical perspective, designing for authentic learning calls for a holistic approach, which considers various aspects, such as real-world relevance, personal meaningfulness, authentic assessment, disciplinary authenticity, and teacher authenticity. In terms of similarities across participants in this study, most faculty interpreted authentic learning as including “real-world” characteristics -- that is, authentic learning is a type of learning that is situated in real-world contexts and is relevant to learners’ future careers. In terms of differences, only a few participants emphasized that authentic learning requires removing the dichotomy of a hierarchical classroom environment based on the principles of co-learning. The findings of this study also highlighted examples of authentic learning and challenges associated with implementing authentic learning in competency-based online courses. The study further provides implications for future research and practice.","PeriodicalId":93037,"journal":{"name":"Online learning : the official journal of the Online Learning Consortium","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41326141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mohammad Shams Ud Duha, Jennifer C. Richardson, Y. Maeda, Sevda Kucuk
The increase in online education creates a need to explore how learning outcomes, student satisfaction, and student perceptions about online courses are affected by prior online learning experiences. This study examined the role of prior online learning experience on students’ perceived cognitive presence, social presence, teaching presence, engagement, and satisfaction. The archival data of online learners at a large midwestern university (a total n=878), including survey responses related to Community of Inquiry (CoI), engagement, and satisfaction, were utilized to conduct statistical analyses to determine whether student responses differed by the number of online courses taken previously. We found that only social presence scores (CoI sub-scale) and emotional engagement scores (engagement sub-scale) differed by the number of the online courses taken. However, the effect size was small. We concluded that student satisfaction, engagement, and perceptions of cognitive and teaching presence are not related to prior online course experiences. Implications are discussed.
{"title":"The Role of Prior Online Learning Experience on Student Community of Inquiry, Engagement, and Satisfaction Scores","authors":"Mohammad Shams Ud Duha, Jennifer C. Richardson, Y. Maeda, Sevda Kucuk","doi":"10.24059/olj.v26i4.2949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i4.2949","url":null,"abstract":"The increase in online education creates a need to explore how learning outcomes, student satisfaction, and student perceptions about online courses are affected by prior online learning experiences. This study examined the role of prior online learning experience on students’ perceived cognitive presence, social presence, teaching presence, engagement, and satisfaction. The archival data of online learners at a large midwestern university (a total n=878), including survey responses related to Community of Inquiry (CoI), engagement, and satisfaction, were utilized to conduct statistical analyses to determine whether student responses differed by the number of online courses taken previously. We found that only social presence scores (CoI sub-scale) and emotional engagement scores (engagement sub-scale) differed by the number of the online courses taken. However, the effect size was small. We concluded that student satisfaction, engagement, and perceptions of cognitive and teaching presence are not related to prior online course experiences. Implications are discussed.","PeriodicalId":93037,"journal":{"name":"Online learning : the official journal of the Online Learning Consortium","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45387183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"OLJ December 2022 26(4)","authors":"M. Rice","doi":"10.24059/olj.v26i4.3752","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i4.3752","url":null,"abstract":"Full Issue","PeriodicalId":93037,"journal":{"name":"Online learning : the official journal of the Online Learning Consortium","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48145709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Online educators regularly experiment with ways to create a sense of classroom community in the online courses they design and teach. They do this in part to battle feelings of isolation and loneliness but also to align with prevailing theories of learning (e.g., social constructivism) as well as to mimic idealized in-person face-to-face learning experiences. However, little is known about how well a sense of community is developed in accelerated online courses. Given this, we investigated students’ perceptions of classroom community in traditional length online courses (e.g., 15-week courses) and accelerated online courses (e.g., 7-week courses) taught by the same instructors. The results showed that there was not a statistically significant difference in students’ perceptions of classroom community between the 15-week and 7-week courses. Students in this study rated the accelerated 7-week courses as having a higher sense of classroom community. In this paper, we present the results of our inquiry. We conclude with the implications of our research on research and practice.
{"title":"Classroom Community and Time: Comparing Student Perceptions in Traditional vs. Accelerated Online Courses","authors":"Patrick R. Lowenthal, J. Trespalacios","doi":"10.24059/olj.v26i4.3498","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i4.3498","url":null,"abstract":"Online educators regularly experiment with ways to create a sense of classroom community in the online courses they design and teach. They do this in part to battle feelings of isolation and loneliness but also to align with prevailing theories of learning (e.g., social constructivism) as well as to mimic idealized in-person face-to-face learning experiences. However, little is known about how well a sense of community is developed in accelerated online courses. Given this, we investigated students’ perceptions of classroom community in traditional length online courses (e.g., 15-week courses) and accelerated online courses (e.g., 7-week courses) taught by the same instructors. The results showed that there was not a statistically significant difference in students’ perceptions of classroom community between the 15-week and 7-week courses. Students in this study rated the accelerated 7-week courses as having a higher sense of classroom community. In this paper, we present the results of our inquiry. We conclude with the implications of our research on research and practice.","PeriodicalId":93037,"journal":{"name":"Online learning : the official journal of the Online Learning Consortium","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43760810","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The role of teachers is an important element of online project-based learning courses. Based on the Community of Inquiry framework, this study examined how students’ perceptions of teaching presence, through social presence and cognitive presence, were related to their evaluations of online project-based learning. A 16-week online project-based legal education course was implemented. During the course, students engaged in two small group activities and created two final products. Survey data were collected twice from 38 and 41 students in two course phases. Results from partial least squares analyses revealed that teaching presence was directly related to students’ evaluations in the early stage of the course and indirectly related to students’ evaluations, through the effects of social presence, in the entire course. Practical implications for teachers and suggestions for further studies are provided.
{"title":"The Community of Inquiry Perspective on Teachers’ Role and Students’ Evaluations of Online Project-Based Learning","authors":"Pengyue Guo, Nadira Saab, Danli Ren, W. Admiraal","doi":"10.24059/olj.v26i4.3193","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i4.3193","url":null,"abstract":"The role of teachers is an important element of online project-based learning courses. Based on the Community of Inquiry framework, this study examined how students’ perceptions of teaching presence, through social presence and cognitive presence, were related to their evaluations of online project-based learning. A 16-week online project-based legal education course was implemented. During the course, students engaged in two small group activities and created two final products. Survey data were collected twice from 38 and 41 students in two course phases. Results from partial least squares analyses revealed that teaching presence was directly related to students’ evaluations in the early stage of the course and indirectly related to students’ evaluations, through the effects of social presence, in the entire course. Practical implications for teachers and suggestions for further studies are provided. ","PeriodicalId":93037,"journal":{"name":"Online learning : the official journal of the Online Learning Consortium","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47583437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rhia Moreno, Lee D. Flood, M. Rausch, Arthur Takahashi, Stacy Kluge
Following the transition to e-learning due to COVID-19, instructional designers (IDs) went into action to prepare faculty for distance education using new technologies and pedagogical approaches. The purpose of this qualitative study was to interpret how five members of an ID team at a U.S. higher education institution made sense of their experiences designing and implementing faculty-training courses to aid the emergency remote transition. Using sensemaking theory (Weick, 1988), this study explored their collective meaning-making process through collaborative multistep narrative and thematic analysis. The themes progressed on a storyline depicting their immediate action in response to the crisis, their felt emotions considering the challenges they encountered, their interpretations of collaboration and implementation, and their retrospective feelings of success. Implications of findings will contribute to continuity planning to inform future iterations of faculty-training courses as well as approaches to change and/or crisis impacting online instructional innovation within higher education.
{"title":"Making Sense of Crisis: Instructional Designers’ Experiences with Emergency Remote Teaching","authors":"Rhia Moreno, Lee D. Flood, M. Rausch, Arthur Takahashi, Stacy Kluge","doi":"10.24059/olj.v26i4.3131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i4.3131","url":null,"abstract":"Following the transition to e-learning due to COVID-19, instructional designers (IDs) went into action to prepare faculty for distance education using new technologies and pedagogical approaches. The purpose of this qualitative study was to interpret how five members of an ID team at a U.S. higher education institution made sense of their experiences designing and implementing faculty-training courses to aid the emergency remote transition. Using sensemaking theory (Weick, 1988), this study explored their collective meaning-making process through collaborative multistep narrative and thematic analysis. The themes progressed on a storyline depicting their immediate action in response to the crisis, their felt emotions considering the challenges they encountered, their interpretations of collaboration and implementation, and their retrospective feelings of success. Implications of findings will contribute to continuity planning to inform future iterations of faculty-training courses as well as approaches to change and/or crisis impacting online instructional innovation within higher education.","PeriodicalId":93037,"journal":{"name":"Online learning : the official journal of the Online Learning Consortium","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46918093","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The purpose of this study is to identify and characterize the state of social construction of learning in virtual communities within online learning environments and to identify the advances and research challenges of social learning. The method was a systematic mapping to analyze the evidence published on the topic in 2015-2020. We automatically searched the Scopus and Web of Science databases, applying inclusion and exclusion criteria to obtain the maximum relevant information. The pre-designed search strategy resulted in 187 articles. The main research topic addressed in most of these is learning as a social construction in training contexts, primarily virtual communities. In higher education, the United States is the country with the most active researchers on this topic. In addition, the most significant findings show that in a virtual learning community, social and cognitive interactions with teaching presence are crucial for students to build knowledge and achieve a higher level of learning. This study describes challenges related to the various methodologies, geographical scope, and types of social construction learning in virtual learning communities. This research is intended to be of value to teachers, decision-makers, designers of research and researchers interested in the social construction of learning in online learning environments.
本研究的目的是确定和表征在线学习环境中虚拟社区学习的社会构建状态,并确定社会学习的进展和研究挑战。该方法是一种系统的映射,用于分析2015-2020年发表的关于该主题的证据。我们自动搜索Scopus和Web of Science数据库,应用包含和排除标准来获得最大的相关信息。预先设计的搜索策略产生了187篇文章。其中大多数研究的主要主题是学习作为培训环境中的一种社会建构,主要是虚拟社区。在高等教育领域,美国是研究这一主题最活跃的国家。此外,最重要的研究结果表明,在虚拟学习社区中,社交和认知互动与教学互动对学生积累知识和实现更高水平的学习至关重要。本研究描述了虚拟学习社区中与社会建构学习的各种方法、地理范围和类型相关的挑战。本研究旨在对教师、决策者、研究设计者和对在线学习环境中学习的社会建构感兴趣的研究人员具有价值。
{"title":"Systematic Mapping of the Social Construction of Learning (2015-2020): Challenges for Online Learning Environments","authors":"Ruth-Elizabeth Minga-Vallejo, M. Ramírez-Montoya","doi":"10.24059/olj.v26i4.2947","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i4.2947","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this study is to identify and characterize the state of social construction of learning in virtual communities within online learning environments and to identify the advances and research challenges of social learning. The method was a systematic mapping to analyze the evidence published on the topic in 2015-2020. We automatically searched the Scopus and Web of Science databases, applying inclusion and exclusion criteria to obtain the maximum relevant information. The pre-designed search strategy resulted in 187 articles. The main research topic addressed in most of these is learning as a social construction in training contexts, primarily virtual communities. In higher education, the United States is the country with the most active researchers on this topic. In addition, the most significant findings show that in a virtual learning community, social and cognitive interactions with teaching presence are crucial for students to build knowledge and achieve a higher level of learning. This study describes challenges related to the various methodologies, geographical scope, and types of social construction learning in virtual learning communities. This research is intended to be of value to teachers, decision-makers, designers of research and researchers interested in the social construction of learning in online learning environments.","PeriodicalId":93037,"journal":{"name":"Online learning : the official journal of the Online Learning Consortium","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47201828","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ying Cai, Zilong Pan, Song-Ae Han, Peixia Shao, Min Liu
During the COVID-19 pandemic, from early 2020 onwards, the adoption of synchronous online learning increased rapidly. It offers students a unique learning experience, utilizing communication modes from both in-person and asynchronous online classes. This mixed-methods study examined the impact of modes of communication (visual, bodily behaviors, spoken language, and written language) found in synchronous online contexts on students’ learning experiences from the perspective of social presence and teaching presence, as well as their satisfaction with synchronous online learning experience. An online survey was distributed first to collect quantitative data. The survey results indicated that four different modes influenced students’ communication to a different extent, with written and spoken language being the most effective modes of online communication. These modes were also significantly positively correlated with social presence, teaching presence, and student satisfaction; however, only spoken language was a significant predictor of student satisfaction. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine students’ perceptions of how multimodality affects social presence, teaching presence, and satisfaction with online learning. This led to five major themes and highlighted how multiple modes of communication supports social presence, thereby helping teachers scaffold students. In addition, the online learning context impacts type of instruction, and the reduced distance between teachers and students improves teaching presence; however, the students felt a lack of affective belonging in their online classes. This study also provided implications for course instructors and designers to help them effectively adopt different modes in synchronous online environments and promote social and teaching presence.
{"title":"The Impact of Multimodal Communication on Learners’ Experience in a Synchronous Online Environment: A Mixed-Methods Study","authors":"Ying Cai, Zilong Pan, Song-Ae Han, Peixia Shao, Min Liu","doi":"10.24059/olj.v26i4.3448","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i4.3448","url":null,"abstract":"During the COVID-19 pandemic, from early 2020 onwards, the adoption of synchronous online learning increased rapidly. It offers students a unique learning experience, utilizing communication modes from both in-person and asynchronous online classes. This mixed-methods study examined the impact of modes of communication (visual, bodily behaviors, spoken language, and written language) found in synchronous online contexts on students’ learning experiences from the perspective of social presence and teaching presence, as well as their satisfaction with synchronous online learning experience. An online survey was distributed first to collect quantitative data. The survey results indicated that four different modes influenced students’ communication to a different extent, with written and spoken language being the most effective modes of online communication. These modes were also significantly positively correlated with social presence, teaching presence, and student satisfaction; however, only spoken language was a significant predictor of student satisfaction. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine students’ perceptions of how multimodality affects social presence, teaching presence, and satisfaction with online learning. This led to five major themes and highlighted how multiple modes of communication supports social presence, thereby helping teachers scaffold students. In addition, the online learning context impacts type of instruction, and the reduced distance between teachers and students improves teaching presence; however, the students felt a lack of affective belonging in their online classes. This study also provided implications for course instructors and designers to help them effectively adopt different modes in synchronous online environments and promote social and teaching presence.","PeriodicalId":93037,"journal":{"name":"Online learning : the official journal of the Online Learning Consortium","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47581825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}