Abstract

This study used a social presence construct derived from the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework, with cohesive, affective, and interactive components, to explore online discussion in an Advanced Placement course for rural high school students. The COI is based on the underlying theoretical framework of social constructivism, where interaction is a key component of learning. The study focuses on the contributions of students and online teachers to social presence in online discussion, and explores student dropout through the lens of social presence. Teacher social presence behaviors tended to be cohesive in nature, while students' social presence behaviors were primarily affective and interactive in nature. The study found that compared to their peers who completed the course, many students who dropped the course were more likely to use sarcasm, complain, or disagree with other students. Each teacher demonstrated unique patterns of social presence behaviors. There were also distinct patterns of student dropout characteristics associated with high social presence and low social presence teachers.

Citation

de la Varre, C. An exploration of student and teacher social presence in asynchronous discussion in an online advanced placement course for rural high school students. Ph.D. thesis, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved August 9, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/119049/.

This record was imported from ProQuest on October 23, 2013. [Original Record]

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Keywords

• Educational Psychology Education
• Technology of Education