Lecturers' Social Presence and Personality in the Online Environment: The Perceptions of Off-Campus Postgraduate and On and Off-Campus Undergraduate Management Students

Title
Lecturers' Social Presence and Personality in the Online Environment: The Perceptions of Off-Campus Postgraduate and On and Off-Campus Undergraduate Management Students
Publication Date
2013
Author(s)
Valenzuela, Fredy
Fisher, Josie A
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4828-6410
Email: jfisher@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:jfisher
Whale, Sue
Editor
Editor(s): Belinda Tynan, Julie Willems, Rosalind James
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
IGI Global
Place of publication
Hershey, United States of America
Edition
1
Series
Advances in Mobile and Distance Learning (AMDL) Book Series
DOI
10.4018/978-1-4666-4205-8.ch028
UNE publication id
une:13636
Abstract
The first aim of this chapter is to present a literature review regarding two very important concepts for the online learning environment: social presence and personality. The second aim is to present the findings of an exploratory study that measured students' perceptions regarding different aspects of their experience with the online learning environment including social presence and personality of lecturers in the online environment in particular. An online survey (developed using Qualtrix) was emailed to 474 off-campus postgraduate and 699 undergraduate students who are pursuing a coursework degree in management. To date, 62 responses from postgraduate and 41 from undergraduate students have been received, which indicates a response rate of 13 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively. Results show that social presence is not being successfully developed by lecturers, with discussion boards and chat rooms showing relatively low evaluations. In terms of lecturers' personalities in the online environment, results show that some lecturers do not have a clear structure for their discussion boards and chat rooms and that the language used by lecturers in the online environment (especially discussion boards and chat rooms) differs from their language in face-to-face contexts. Other online learning tools, such as special podcasts and special vodcasts, show less difference in the personality of lecturers in the online and face-to-face contexts, especially in terms of language and tone of voice used by lecturers.
Link
Citation
Outlooks and Opportunities in Blended and Distance Learning, p. 383-402
ISBN
9781466642065
9781466642072
9781466642058
Start page
383
End page
402

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