Self-presentation:
- Online identity expression (avatars, signatures, personal pictures)
        - Use of these artifacts influences the user’s sense of social presence (Shen, 2009) 
- Self-disclosure positively impacts user engagement 

Extroversion:
- Extroverted personalities can be displayed through text, animation, and voice. 
- Human warmth and sociability affect social presence (Short et al., 1976)
- Extroversion is more socially perceived by students


Key antecedents: Instructor Factors

- Attention
- Perceived control
- Perceived responsiveness
- Perceived synchronicity


Key antecedents: Student Factors

Media richness:
  - Rich media channels are those that transmit audio, video, or two-way communication
  - Complex information (like content in MOOCs) should be communicated visually
  - Interaction types ranked by their level of perceived "richness" (most to least):
     1. face-to-face
     2. video
     3. audio
     4. text


Key antecedents: Website Factors

- Instructor factors: self-presentation, extraversion
- Student factors: attention, perceived control, perceived responsiveness, perceived synchronicity 
- Website factors: media richness


San Jose State University

University of California, Davis

There are key factors that influence perceived social presence in online learning. Social presence influences online user behavior.


Social Presence in Online Learning

Imlawi, J. M. (2018). Social Presence Antecedents and Consequences in Massive Open Online Courses. International Business Research (Toronto), 11(4), 32. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v11n4p32 

Social Presence Antecedents and Consequences in Massive Open Online Courses

Each are influenced by social presence perception:
- Students’ behavior
- Satisfaction: the perception of enjoyment and accomplishment in the learning environment 
- Enjoyment: an intrinsic motivation, “the degree to which performing an activity is perceived as providing pleasure and joy in it’s own right aside from performance consequences”
- Their attitude toward the website


Key Consequences of Social Presence in MOOCs

Method:
- This study used a web based survey to validate study constructs (survey monkey) and asked participants if they had ever been in a MOOC and which websites they frequented in the duration of the course
- Measured on a 1-7 Likert scale (1-strongly disagree to 7- strongly agree)
- Utilized a convenience sample
- Controlled variable is gender, experience with MOOCs, and the MOOCs website name and reputation
- T-tests for data analysis and Partial Least Squares for hypothesis testing

Findings:
- The empirical results support all of the hypotheses in the study.


Social presence antecedents research, methodology, & findings

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused schools to shut down, forcing many students to continue their education via online learning. As a result, the social aspect of education was virtually eliminated, leaving students feeling alone in their online courses. To solve this, different video technologies can be used to aid instruction. This study looks at the different instructional strategies for increasing the social presence of students and instructors.

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