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Is my Instructor there for me? A Study of Reflective Practice and Student Perceptions of Online Teaching Presence

Dr. Julie P. Hall

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Quiz 1: Online Course Instructor Presence Reflections Have you ever taken a fully online course before? A. Yes B. No

Quiz 1: Online Course Instructor Presence Reflections If so, to what extent did you feel your instructor was “present” or “there” for you? A. There to a great extent B. Almost always there C. There to a considerable degree D. Occasionally there E. Seldom there

Quiz 2: Online Course Instructor’s “Being There” Sentiments If you answered “Occasionally there” or “Seldom there,” how did you feel? A. Isolated, lonely B. Dissatisfied C. Wanting to drop the course D. Afraid to speak up E. All of the above

Why is a Sense of Presence so Difficult to Create in Online Learning? • • • •

Designing courses for human presence- complex, intangible Virtual spaces, students can’t interact in person Can’t touch or feel peers or interact with the instructor in person Planning course design, organization, and content easier in face-to-face courses than creating a sense of human presence in an online virtual community of learners • “In the online environment, where there is no face-to-face, it takes a greater effort to develop presence with peers and the instructor” (Stavredes 2011, pp. 37335798). • It takes planning ahead of time! • It may take additional instructor training! Type it in the chat window, preface it with ???, and raise your hand.

Quiz 3: How will an Online Instructor’s “Being there” help students? The students will feel . . . A. Not isolated B. Satisfied C. Stay enrolled D. Comfortable interacting E. All of the above

Online Presence Defined • “The ability to present oneself as a real person online. Students in an online class, feeling themselves to be real persons, are likely to want to connect with another real person” (Palloff & Pratt, 2007, p. 32) • “Being there” and “being together” with online learners throughout the learning experience” (Palloff & Pratt, 2007, p. 3) • Presence “includes the dynamic interplay of thought, emotion, and behavior in the online environment.” (Conceiçāo & Lehman, 2010, p. 4)

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Encourage Collaboration and Reflection in Online Learning Community One way to create an online learning community is to “consider emotion as a guide in the development of presence in online learning communities. . . [and] to use collaborative and reflective communication among participants.” (Conceiçāo & Lehman, 2010, p. 11).

Quiz 4: What does the term “Reflection” mean to you? Please choose all that applyA. Contemplating something B. Thinking about your thinking C. Thinking about what you did in the past D. Thinking about what you hope to do in the future E. Thinking as you are completing a task F. Thinking about how you completed a task

Reflection & Reflective Practice Defined • “The ability to connect new information with personal meaning or past experiences” (Gardner, 2001, p. 27). • “We learn by doing if we reflect upon what we do” (Dewey, 1933, p. 19) • Reflective Practice Activities based on the belief of Pre-reflection before a task, Reflection-in-Action during a task, and Reflection-on-Action after a task (Akyol & Garrison, 2011; Mezirow, 1991; Schön, 1987). • Examples of Reflective Practice Activities include reflective journaling, leadin reflective prompts, narrative reflections, diaries, portfolios, and peer-topeer sharing in online discussion forums. Type it in the chat window, preface it with ???, and raise your hand.

My Beliefs & Desires Behind the Study • Online Teaching Presence would not be felt in an online course room without sufficient interaction and engagement between learners-tolearners and learners-to-instructor and vice versa. • Desire to design future courses with a “constructivist approach” (Gutek, 2004, p. 9) to building knowledge- using scaffolds, guided reflective prompts. •Why? Stimulate thoughtful dialogue and invoke reflection and critical thinking in online learning community. Learner

Learner

Instructor

Community of Inquiry (CoI) Model and the Three Presences (see next slide) • Teaching Presence- “The design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes” (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001., p. 5)- Instructor Being “There” to facilitate this! • Social Presence- “The ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g., course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop inter-personal relationships by projecting their individual personalities” (Garrison, 2009, p. 352)- Feeling Present! • Cognitive Presence- “Exploration, construction, resolution, and confirmation of understanding through collaboration and reflection in a community of inquiry” (Garrison, 2007, p. 65).- Constructing knowledge! Type it in the chat window, preface it with ???, and raise your hand.

Figure 1. The Community of Inquiry Framework. Adapted from Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2001). Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. The American Journal of Distance Education, (15)1, 7–23. doi:10.1080/08923640109527071. Adapted with permission. All three presence factors must be in balance for successful learning experience to occur.

Instructor Can Encourage Collaboration & Reflection

Practical Inquiry Model

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• The practical inquiry model (see next slide) explains the inquiry [questioning] process students go through as they experience a problem [triggering event] in the online learning community and seek ways to explore, integrate, and resolve the problem (Garrison et al., 2001) . • “The practical inquiry model reflects the critical thinking process and the means to create cognitive presence . . . . [cognitive presence is] manifested through the practical inquiry process” (Garrison et al., 2001, p. 11) and can be examined as a way to assess critical thinking of online learners over time.

Figure 2. The Practical Inquiry Model. Adapted from Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2001). Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. The American Journal of Distance Education, (15)1, 7–23. doi:10.1080/08923640109527071. Adapted with Permission.

Chapter 1. Introduction to the Study Introduction to the Problem • As online education expands, many online courses are not properly designed ahead of time to create an online learning community with a sense of virtual presence--including Teaching, Presence (TP), Social Presence (SP), and Cognitive Presence (CP). Background of the Study • Placing content on a website and expecting students to learn in a static learning environment is not conducive to creating a virtual learning community. • One-way facilitation of course content from the instructor to the students without guided facilitation of reflective practice activities is not the most effective way to invoke critical thinking skills in students. Statement of the Problem • No empirical, quantitative research existed regarding college students’ perceptions about an online instructor who assigned reflective practice activities in online courses and a relationship to an online instructor’s teaching presence- Gap in the research of a possible relationship between having students reflect upon their learning in online courses and how it would or would not affect an online instructor’s perceived teaching presence. Type it in the chat window, preface it with ???, and raise your hand.

Research Question and Hypotheses Research Question. Was there a statistically significant difference between students’ perceptions regarding the perceived levels of online teaching presence for an instructor who assigned reflective practice activities (lead-in prompts) and an instructor who did not assign reflective practice activities? Hypotheses • H1: Students in online courses who were assigned reflective practice activities would report statistically significant higher levels of online teaching presence. • H01: Students in online courses who were assigned reflective practice activities would not report any difference in perceived levels of online teaching presence. [Null]

Purpose of the Study The purpose of this correlational study was to determine if a relationship existed between incorporating reflective practice activities in online courses and the students’ reported levels of an online instructor’s teaching presence. If such a relationship existed, the researcher felt it was important to understand to what extent reflective practice activities influenced the students’ perceived level of an online instructor’s teaching presence.

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Chapter 2- Literature Review • Seminal Reflective Practice Theories and Research • Reflective Practice Theories- Brookfield (1995), Schön (1987), and Jarvis (1987, 1992) ~Experiential Learning Theory- Dewey (1933) and Kolb (1984) ~Transformational Learning Theory- Cranton (1996) • Reflective Practice Studies- Waeochan (2004), Forneris and Peden-McAlpine (2006)

• Current Online Presence Theories and Research • Online Presence Theories—Palloff and Pratt (2007), Conceiçāo and Lehman (2010), and Stavredes (2011) • Online Presence Research- Hersh (2009), Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2001) • Community of Inquiry Framework—Garrison et al. (2001 to Present)

Chapter 3- Methodology • Population & Sample • Data Collection • Reflective Practice Activity

• End-of-Course Survey Using Community of Inquiry Questions • Instrumentation • Data Analysis

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Population & Sample • Students over 18 attending community college • 2,300 online students at a Northern California Community College during Fall 2012 • Non-probability convenience sample, students self-selected • Total sample size N = 244 with 146 respondents to End-of-Course Survey (EOC) = 60% response rate • 85 students in control group, 61 in experimental group

Data Collection • 11 online instructors participated- one instructor with 2 sections • 6 different disciplines (ACCT, ADMJ, ENG, HEOC, SPAN, & CFS) • Basket drawing- Entries drawn, entered, and sorted into Experimental and Control groups using Excel • Generated random numbers in Excel to give instructors for EOC Survey openended question “What is you course ID#?” to sort responses by groups • Emailed experimental group instructors to place Reflective Practice Activity into Discussion area of Blackboard (~Week 9 of 18) • Experimental instructors asked students to reflect upon their learning and/or any “Aha! Moment” that had occurred in course so far—nongraded activity—using guided prompts, e.g., “I learned, I felt, I was surprised by, I am wondering, and I was confused by.” Type it in the chat window, preface it with ???, and raise your hand.

Reflective Practice Activity REFLECTIVE PRACTICE ACTIVITY As part of your online learning experience, I have been asked to implement this Reflective practice activity as part of a research project being conducted by Professor Julie Hall. Your participation is voluntary and your comments will remain confidential within your respective online class section. Participating in the study will not negatively affect your grade in any way. Your participation in this study is hoped to help Professor Hall suggest ways to improve the quality and delivery of online courses. INSTRUCTIONS: Please choose at least TWO (2) of the lead-in reflective prompts below and reflect upon either/both of the following sentences: “What have you learned about a specific topic within your online course so far this semester”? “What ‘Aha! Moment’ have you experienced so far in your online course”? I learned_____________________________________________________________. I felt________________________________________________________________. I was surprised by_____________________________________________________. I am wondering_______________________________________________________. I was confused by_____________________________________________________. Thank you for your voluntary participation in Professor Julie Hall’s research study. Julie Powell Hall, PhD, MBA 

Instrumentation • Reflective Practice Activity intervention- Designed by J. Hall (2012) influenced by Brookfield’s (1995) “Critical Incident Questionnaire” and Angelo and Cross’s (1993) “Muddiest Points” reflective exercises • Reflective Practice Activity and End-of-Course (EOC) Survey- Field tested by 10 online peers • Instructors copied and pasted activity and instructions in the discussions area of Blackboard - ~Week 9 of 18 depending on course length • Community of Inquiry (CoI) Survey Instrument- Used to construct EOC survey. Randy Garrison granted permission to use • CoI Survey Instrument- 34 questions on 5-point Likert-type scale; J. Hall randomized questions amongst the three presences—teaching, cognitive, and social presence. Added 3 self-selected questions to CoI- Did not use in analysis since did not ultimately answer the research question • Survey- Launched three weeks before final exams Type it in the chat window, preface it with ???, and raise your hand.

Data Analysis • EOC survey data downloaded to surveymonkey.com and arranged by groups and further sorted by three presences- TP, CP, and SP. • J. Hall sent Excel Workbook to the University of Georgia’s Statistical Consulting Center (SCC) for further analysis • SCC used Excel 2007 and SAS 9.3 for data calculations • Descriptive and inferential statistics, independent samples t-test, Wilcoxon Rank-Sum Test, Pearson’s r, and ANCOVA were used to investigate the presence scales and subscales. (NOTE: Main highlights only today!) • Teaching presence was the dependent variable and cognitive presence was the independent variable.

What are Average (Mean) Scores and an Independent Samples t-test? • Average (Mean) Scores as reported on the End-of-Course Survey for overall Teaching Presence and Cognitive Presence for both the experimental and control groups using a 5-Point Likert-Type Scale. (1= strongly disagree up to 5 = strongly agree) • Independent Samples t-test used to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference between the averages (means) of the experimental and control groups. • Null hypothesis states that there is “no” statistically significant difference between the two groups. Type it in the chat window, preface it with ???, and raise your hand.

Chapter 4. Data Results- Teaching Presence Mean Scores and t-test Teaching Presence (TP) Average [Mean] Scores, 5-Point Likert-type Scale Experimental group (M = 4.36) Control group (M = 3.87) The Teaching Presence (TP) Independent Two-Samples t-test (df = 143, t = 4.04, *p