Instructional presence is an important and vital part of the learning environment affecting student performance (Law, Geng, & Li, 2019). Instructional presence deals with how one presents themselves as an instructor/facilitator and the courseware itself. This is vital for many reasons, specifically student comprehension, motivation, critical thinking, achievement, and both instructor and student experiences (Anders, 2017). Instructional presence is the culmination of social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence as initially developed by Dewey (1910) and then further refined by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (1999) into the Community of Inquiry Model.
In working in higher academia for many years and helping professors improve their courses, I’ve heard and read critiques from students in large classes and online courses. “I feel like just a number in the class, I don’t think he even knows my name” and “the instructor is so distant. She seems unapproachable and I don’t really know anyone else in the class, I feel very isolated.” In analyzing these comments and researching the different components of the class and interactions, the ultimate reason for these issues is Instructional Presence. Thankfully instructional presence can be improved (both online and face-to-face) with strategic use of video within the course.
By properly using video all three aspects of the Community of Inquiry Model (social, cognitive, and teaching presence) can be enhanced. Social presence is about instructors/facilitators being able to humanize themselves to the students and the students humanizing themselves to one another so that all feel that they are valued and are real people with shared goals in a community of inquiry (Kim, 2011; Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000). Effective project orientated instructor and student introductory videos can help build this sense of humanization and shared educational endure (incorporated with a reflective assignment dealing with the course). Other effective uses of video to enhance social presence are in its use for announcements, reminders, and supplementary materials. A key aspect here is how one projects themselves using proper verbal and non-verbal forms of communication to be viewed as much more relatable and approachable.
Cognitive presence deals with both the process and the outcomes of the instruction through communication/interaction within the learning community (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2001; Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 1999). This area can be enhanced by creating videos that are effective, properly chunked into shorter more manageable lengths, provide clear instruction, and have closed captions for ease of review. In other words, making good videos to make it as easy and effective (avoiding cognitive overload) for students to learn from.
Teaching presence (involving the instructor or the student, whoever is filling the teacher role at any given time) describes the active, direct facilitation- involvement within the course (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001). To stress the importance of this area, a study by Bowers and Kumar (2015) identified that the strongest links for students’ feelings of presence and connectedness derived from instructors giving clear expectations for the assignments, helping students stay focused, and providing relevant/timely feedback. Effective use of video can be used with each one of these items to improve teaching presence. Ideas include a video summary of the syllabus, an assignment video with tips on what to focus on, and short feedback summary videos sent with detailed written information.
To help instructors, facilitators, and trainers, I wrote an implementation book on enhancing instructional presence (Anders, 2017). The book goes into further details of how to fully implement the enhanced use of video to address each aspect of instructional presence. As an example, it isn’t enough to just start to have announcement videos, they need to be made in the right way. This type of video needs to be very short, friendly, and provide relevant information for the student. It should be timely and current, showing that it was recently made. This shows the class that you as the instructor are a real person going through the class with them. Don’t worry, this type of short announcement video should not be a major professional production, it should be a quick, not necessarily perfect, communication with your class. Here is an example:
“Hi, class. It is 1 November 2019, and it is cold and raining here in Manhattan, KS. I’m on my way to my office and wanted to put out this quick announcement. Remember that our class this coming Monday will be over chapter 7 so be sure to read up on it. We’ll have a cool demonstration then a discussion. Also remember that Monday, 4 November is also the due date for your video projects. I’m excited to check them all out. OK, see you in class, bye.”
Notice how this is made in a very informal way. Ideally, this would be very short, done on a good smartphone, outside or by a window, to show the students a real environment. The casualness of it would also help in humanizing the instructor making them that much more approachable. I specifically describe a present instructor as “a real human person that students want to listen to, can approach, and interact with” (Anders, 2017). All of this works to give students a greater sense of community.
In my book, I also talk about the difference in using video for social presence as opposed to cognitive and teaching presence. I recommend using more professionally made videos for the main instructional content to ensure that the videos are as clear and understandable as possible to maximize learning. The focus is on cognitive process and teaching so the use of video is different than when the goal is pure social interaction.
The key to all of this is in understanding that instructional presence is a real thing and that it greatly affects students learning (Giannousi, & Kioumourtzoglou, 2016). Those responsible for instruction need to ensure that instructional presence is being addressed properly in order to have the best class possible. By properly using video, instructional presence can be enhanced helping to ensure a positive educational experience for both instructors and students.
Reference
Anders, B. (2017). How to enhance instructional presence: Research & experience based techniques to improve both online & face-to-face instruction. Manhattan, KS: Sovorel Publishing.
Anderson, T., Rourke, R., Garrison, D. R., & Archer, W. (2001). Assessing teaching presence in a computer conferencing context. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 5(2), 1-17.
Bowers, J., & Kumar, P. (2015). Students’ perceptions of teaching and social presence: A comparative analysis of face-to-face and online learning environments. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 10(1), 27-44.
Dewey, J. (1910). How we think. New York, NY: D. C. Heath & Co.
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2), 87-105.
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 1–19.
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2001). Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. American Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 7-23.
Giannousi, M., & Kioumourtzoglou, E. (2016). Cognitive, social, and teaching presence as predictors of students’ satisfaction in distance learning. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 7(2 S1), 439.
Kim, J. (2011). Developing an instrument to measure social presence in distance higher education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(5), 763-777.
Law, K. M., Geng, S., & Li, T. (2019). Student enrollment, motivation and learning performance in a blended learning environment: The mediating effects of social, teaching, and cognitive presence. Computers & Education, 136, 1-12.