Students can forgive our technological hiccups, they will forget our poor classroom design, and most will be generous about our grading errors if they understand that there really is a human being teaching their online courses. And what does our students' forgiveness, forgetfulness, and generosity really mean - it means that students learn better and are more satisfied in online courses with consistent social, teaching and cognitive presence. Regardless of how instruction is delivered, effective learning is always more about the student and the instructor, and less about the technology. Think of technology as a supplemental tool for the instructor or students to use to amplify their presence and engagement in the learning environment.

Of all the good practices for online teaching, the most important practice is “being there.” Being there is the core of presence, letting your students know that you are there to direct, to guide, to listen and to share your expertise with your learners. This page takes you on a guided tour through an exploration of Three Presences for Online Teaching and Learning — Social Presence, Teaching Presence and Cognitive Presence. These definitions of types of presence first emerged from the work of D. Randy Garrison in 2006 (Garrison, 2006b). Dr. Garrison (see image right) is a retired professor from the University of Calgary and has published extensively on teaching and learning in adult, higher and distance education contexts. He has also won several awards including the 2009 Sloan-C Award for Most Outstanding Achievement in Online Learning by an Individual.

Explore the tabs below for definitions of the Garrison's three types of presence and tools and behaviors — for both faculty and students —that support these three types of presence.

Social Presence
Teaching Presence
Cognitive Presence

What is Social Presence? Social presence is the ability to project oneself socially and affectively and getting to know each other as three-dimensional people despite not meeting face-to-face. Social presence is the foundation of building trust and presence for the teaching and learning experiences.
How do you develop this? What behaviors help to create social presence?

Social presence may be the easiest and most natural of the types of presence to achieve. Sharing where you live, your family, your pets and who you are as a person, your likes and dislikes encourages students to share who they are as well. Something as simple as sharing a picture of your favorite place or whether you stop at Starbucks every morning builds connections to you and your students. You want to encourage your learners to become real to each other and to build these connections. Designing ways for your learners to share more of who they are is one way to help build these connections.
All these connections lay the foundation for creating a climate of trust and safety. This climate of trust prepares the learners for your teaching presence and the cognitive presence of the community.

Tools and Behaviors by Faculty and Students for Social Presence

Introductions and sharing in the Week Zero and Week 1 of class
A special discussion thread or forum for informal exchanges
Providing and encouraging appropriate types of sharing times and spaces within the course site and throughout the quarter
Faculty and students are willing to think aloud about how they think and how they arrived at their conclusions or opinions
Showing respect and care for others through public and private communications with each other.
Taking advantage of the services and supportive resources of the college and directing each other to those resources

Teaching presence can be defined as the work of teaching that is done before and during the course. It includes all the preparatory work in designing and developing the course and the hands-on teaching of directing and supporting the learners during the course delivery. Teaching presence comes through in the course materials — in the syllabus, assignments, choices of readings and discussions. Teaching presence is also manifested in everything you do to guide, support and shape the learners’ experiences. Effective teaching presence sets clear expectations and provides supportive guidance.

The work by Garrison and others at the Community of Inquiry offer this more formal definition: Teaching presence is the “design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educational worthwhile learning outcomes.” (Garrison, 2006b)

Tools and Behaviors by Faculty for Teaching Presence

Sets clear expectations for students; is specific about how learners are to be “present”
Is visibly present in the course site every day if possible; is substantively present at least four days a week.
Coaches and guides learners to keep pace with their learning and think deeply about what they know and why they know it
Encourages questions regarding activities, assignments, etc.
Restates assignments, pacing on assignments
Helps students not to be surprised by course requirements and events
Uses announcement tools to ensure students are aware of responsibilities, due dates and other activities
Uses email or other private communications for confidential correspondence and gentle and firm guidance as might be needed.

Cognitive presence is described as the extent to which a group of learners are able to “construct meaning through sustained communication.” (Garrison, 2006a). Cognitive presence requires attention, effort and commitment from both the faculty and the learners in a course community. Cognitive presence is achieving outcomes and understanding on an intellectual level. It is also present at an affective level when learning activities tap into students' existing meaning structures to create new meanings. Integrating existing learning with new learning requires knowledge, reflection, discussion and confirming of meaning.

Tools and Behaviors by Faculty and Students for Cognitive Presence

Faculty sets high expectations for student inquiry and expectations in the course
Faculty evaluate student responses and provide feedback or questions that encourage further thought and analysis of ideas
Learners participate thoughtfully in the discussions, responding to content, thoughts and questions from other learners so that a “sustained communication” occurs.
Faculty and students strive to ensure that project outcomes are relevant, long-lasting and meaningful (authentic assessments)

Cognitive presence typically requires a focus on meaning, but it can depend on the course. In higher level college courses, depth and problem solving is usually pursued over concept awareness or covering content. Developing and maintaining cognitive presence is not for the faint of heart. It requires time, listening, reflecting and careful responding to encourage sustained conversation and continuous search for meaning and knowledge creation.

References

Garrison, D. R. (2006a). Online collaboration principles. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 10(1) pp. 25-34. Accessed August 12, 2015 at http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.96.4536&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Garrison, D. R. (2006b) Online community of inquiry review: Social, cognitive, and teaching presence issues. Accessed August 13, 2015 at http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ842688.pdf