Instructor presence in online education: an analysis of student perceptions and performance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to research ways and methods that faculty establish instructor presence in an online learning environment in higher education, and how those methods impact students in these learning environments. More specifically, this study analyzed instructor presence by seeking answers to the following question: What online instructional practices do students perceive as valuable to their learning? This study took place at a small, Catholic, liberal arts southeastern university. This study focused only on students enrolled in the distance education program that is offered online. Although some of the students in the online program were traditional college-aged, the majority of them were non-traditional students, many of whom work full-time and balance their school responsibilities with work and family obligations. The University’s online program attracts a large number of active or former military students, military spouses, and first-generation college students. The primary data source for the study was a survey that focused on indicators of instructor presence. The instructor presence indicators were compiled primarily from instruments designed to measure instructor presence in online courses and many of the indicators were drawn from the social and teaching presence scales of the Community of Inquiry (COI) instrument by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000). Other indicators were developed from the cognitive presence scale and were centered on the types of actions an instructor might take to maintain these conditions. The overall intent was to create a broad, yet inclusive list of the type of actions an instructor would typically take in designing, delivering, and monitoring an online course (Sheridan & Kelly, 2010). Results suggested that students perceived the instructional practice of making course requirements clear as valuable. Students reported that they also perceived the instructional practice of instructors providing timely communication to students’ questions/concerns as valuable. Participants also recognized that timely feedback on assignments and projects was valuable to student learning. Students also perceived the instructional practice of creating a course that was easy to navigate as valuable. While some students reported the use of discussion forums to be perceived as valuable, this practice was not reported to be perceived as valuable as the other instructional practices. The same was true for establishing a sense of community in an online course as well as engaging in a real time synchronous chat sessions. This study has both practical and theoretical implications in online course design, distance education delivery, and online pedagogy. Recommendations for the program under study were also provided.