Launching Your Social and Cognitive Presence 

Interaction and Presence as a Key Point of Satisfaction 

Do you know what one of the key quality indicators of online courses, is? It is regular and timely interaction. No, not with co-workers, but with students. Learner satisfaction with their online learning courses is directly related to the presence of their faculty member (Richardson & Swan, 2003; Burnett et el., 2007; Gould & Padavano, 2006; Young & Norgard, 2006; Lowenthal & Dennen, 2017). It can also be said that social interaction between students is also a significant factor in satisfaction. For example, students are more satisfied with a course when they can get "distinct impressions" of other students (Boston et al., 2009).

It shouldn't be surprising then that the most important things in online learning are presence, presence, and you guessed it, more presence. The previously cited research suggests that almost 21% of the variance associated with retention and re-enrollment stemmed from social presence. 

Let's look at some ways to be more socially present for your students. 

1. A Getting-Acquainted Social Discussion Forum 

It is very easy to feel isolated in an online course and not really know who your peers are. Having an initial forum can allow students to project their personal characteristics that presents themselves as real people. Sharing something personal about yourself can establish connections and trust between you and your students. 

Students want to know you and their fellow peers, and this initial discussion can start creating connections between each other on several levels. If you want to bedazzle your online course the first week, you can choose to have students submit videos of themselves answering questions. 

 You can also set the tone for what you are looking for in this introduction post by posting some, if not all, of the following:

• Your Name 

• What you preferred to be called 

• Education background

• Experiences and Hurdles 

• Enthusiasm for subject matter and student success 

• Number of years teaching 

• Kids and pets 

• Hobbies

• Fun facts 

• Class expectations 

2. A Getting-Acquainted Cognitive Discussion Forum 

Yes, this is practically the same title as the first example, but I promise that it is completely different. We talked about the importance of social interactions, now we want to know the importance of getting to know our students' minds. A forum that requires students to review the course competencies and develop some personal and customized goals helps give students something specific and personal to grow towards. This also lets us, as teachers, know that our students have read and digested our very thought out syllabi and addendums. You can ask them to identify the course competency that they believe is the most fundamental, difficult, or easy for them. A cognitive discussion forum allows us answer the very important question of "How do we know what our students know?" by focusing on what is in your learner's mind at the very beginning of the semester. 

3. Announcements and Just Being Available 

One simple strategy for staying in touch with your students is through the announcements tool. While there isn't an exact posting rule, you do want to try and be consistent with your communication. You don't want to send multiple announcements out the first week and then disappear the rest of the semester. You're probably thinking, "What do I need to post?" and "How often should I send an announcement?". That can really be up to you. We don't want to overwhelm them since they get a lot of emails each week, but we also don't want to be so scarce that students wonder if you are even there. Knowing what you need to post will help you figure out how to communicate. The first two weeks are the most important, so make sure you are communicating information about you, the course, expectations, assignments that need to be completed, and encouragement for the students who are brand new to college or even online.

You can also be available in other ways. Having a texting app available can allow students to reach out to you in a less formal way about a question they have. Remind is a good option, but Google Chat can also work. This can be helpful if you don't want to be on your computer all the time and also be available on the weekends. *If you don't want your students to contact you over the weekend, then make sure your assignments are not due at that time. You'll also want to make sure you are clear on what is appropriate and not appropriate when it comes to using the texting app. Set rules for how late they can message you, or when it is okay to text you versus sending an email. Clear expectations will help prevent many 11:58 p.m. texts saying, "Blackboard won't let me upload my paper!".