 
|
 |
This event took place on 23rd June 2007 at 9:30am (08:30 GMT)
Knowledge Media Institute, Berrill Building, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, MK7 6AA
Learners and educators experience each other in different ways in face-to-face classrooms from online learning environments. The richness of non-verbal clues present in a face-to-face environment is difficult, if not impossible, to re-create in an online situation. In online tutorials the dialogue needs to perform the task of integration within the group (Gunawardena 1995). Immediacy, the communication and behaviour which enhance closeness and non-verbal interaction, is less visible within online environments. Here too dialogue becomes the central means for communication in the online classroom (Gustafson, Hodgson & Tickner 2004). Garrison et al (2000) believe that learning occurs at the intersection of social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence. Ongoing research (for example: Stickler et al 2006) shows that, regardless of the medium, spoken synchronous tutorials provide students with target language input and opportunities for spoken output. Hence, teaching presence and cognitive presence are less problematic in online tuition, focussing the researcher’s attention on the third aspect: social presence.
This paper focuses on social presence in synchronous audio-graphic conferences. By applying Rourke’s (2001) model (designed to assess social presence in asynchronous CMC interaction) to both face-to-face and spoken online tutorials we can start to assess its applicability and efficacy for synchronous conferences. Using transcription data of spoken face-to-face and online beginners’ German languages tutorials, we will investigate whether other instances of social presence become visible and how the immediacy, provided by synchronicity combines together with the sparsity of non-verbal clues of the online environment. |
| Return to the event page |
Click here to submit a question or comment
The webcast was open to 100 users
|
 Click below to play the event (47 minutes) |
|
|
