User:Piscesinterlude/Social presence theory

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As computer-mediated communication has evolved, a more relational view of social presence has emerged. Social presence has come to be viewed as the way individuals represent themselves in their online environment. It's a personal stamp that indicates that the individual is available and willing to engage and connect with other persons in their online community. Social presence is demonstrated by the way messages are posted and how those messages are interpreted by others. Social presence defines how participants relate to one another, which in turn affects their ability to communicate effectively.

Social Presence Theory provides a foundation for communication systems designers and serves as a main principle in computer-mediated-communication studies. Gorham & Cristophel (1990), Tu & McIsaac (2002), and Aragon (2003) place high importance on using engagement tactics, in online classrooms, geared towards increasing social presence and reducing distance. These tactics include humanizing the interactions between instructor and students. Asynchronous (pre-produced content accessed individually by students on the web) and synchronous (real-time, simultaneous live connections of students together) components combined can enliven online interactions. Depending on the technology used, synchronous sessions can provide both audio and video connections, allowing an interchange involving both sight and sound, and all the rich nonverbal communication inherent in tone of voice and facial expressions. In a more recent study with distance learning, it is argued that distance learning works strictly to teach academic skill and that face-to-face learning teaches more well rounded skill. Author Jennifer J. Roberts' research discusses a blend of the two teaching mediums and their importance. Brian E. Mennecke, Janea L. Triplett, Lesya M. Hassall, Zayira Jordán Conde, and Rex Heer examined how online mediums affect the communication between educators and their students. They discovered that there is a absence of consistent social cues which made them build more of a personal approach when communicating. This created a significance on the cultural perspective and framework of the students and how they communicate in an online environment.

Designers have accepted Social Presence Theory as a major design principle, to gain insight into user behavior when developing web-based applications and social computing technologies. They use social communication tools to enhance the student experience and to overcome the challenges of forming interpersonal relationships in a virtual space. Designers seek to provide a high-quality experience for the users by encouraging meaningful interactions between users and the development of interpersonal relationships. In a study conducted by Jahng and Littau in 2016, it was found that the importance we give to computer-mediated communications in order to trust the people we communicate with is reinforced. Their study describes how important it is for journalists to be active on social media in order to create a bond of trust with their audiences. Individuals do not feel comfortable when professionals are not as active on social platforms as is the established norm. It is discussed by Joshua Weidlich, Kate Xu, and Karel Kreijns that every medium can be identified by how factual and genuine the emotions feel and are perceived by the receiver when the subject communicates emotions both verbally and non verbally.

Research related to the importance of social presence to the success of students points to the need to design social communication tools to enhance users' experience of one another. Social presence affects different aspects of a learner's experience, such as their "success (Russo & Benson, 2005; Zhan & Mei, 2013), satisfaction (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997; Richardson & Swan, 2003; So & Brush, 2008; Zhan & Mei, 2013), and performance (Lomicka & Lord, 2007; Richardson & Swan, 2003)." A positive social presence enables students to engage with each other with ease, while a negative social presence  has been shown to increase disappointment in users, which decreases cognition and familiarity with the material. Without social presence learning interaction suffers, which has negative effects on learning performance. Patrick Lowenthal discussed future trends in online learning with social presence theory in mind. He stated "researchers and practitioners alike will have to consider a new host of things related to social presence with the continued blurring of boundaries between classroom and fully online courses as well as between course bound communication tools (e.g., discussion forums) and non-course bound tools (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) (Dunlap & Lowenthal, 2009; Lowenthal, 2009a; Lowenthal & Dunlap, 2007;)." (pg. 133-134)