The degree to which students feel that they share things in common with their peers. 

Social Sharing in Online Learning Communities

The degree to which a student feels that their instructor and classmates respect their peers' questions, ideas, and opinions. 

Social Respect in Online Learning Communities

The degree to which a student understands and supports others' points of view. 

Open Mind in Online Learning Communities

The degree to which students express their personal stories and emotional feelings. 

Intimacy in Online Learning Communities

- social sharing 
- social respect
- open mind
- intimacy

New York University

Within a Computer-mediated communication (CMC) context, social presence is the extent to which an individual is perceived as a genuine human being in communication through a medium and represents the psychological connection between people.

The greater social presence there is, the more interactions there are within the community (i.e. more engagement) leading to stronger connections, trust, and social ties between students resulting in a greater social cohesion.

Social presence in social cohesion

Sung, E., & Mayer, R. E. (2012). Five facets of social presence in online distance education. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), 1738-1747.

Five facets of social presence in online distance education

To increase social presence in online communities and increase social cohesion, designers should:
- use a group member's real name for their profile
- reduce media richness

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