I am still here: Lessons learned from incorporating social presence in remote teaching
Date
2022
Authors
Kluyts, Marike
Nell, Annalene
Coetzer, Zonnike
Du Plooy, Charlene
Norval, Gawain
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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Abstract
This chapter shares the reflections of a group of teachers who taught
on an enrichment programme for secondary school learners run by a
research-intensive higher education institution in South Africa. The aim
of the programme is to increase eligibility and access to higher
education, through providing meaningful educational inputs to help
prepare learners for the university environment (SETMU 2020: 5). The
continuation of lockdown learning in 2021 aected the mode of delivery
of the enrichment programme, resulting in the programme being
presented remotely, using both synchronous and asynchronous inputs.
Remote teaching and learning have stripped away many aspects, such
as ease of connection, central to ‘brick-and-mortar’ teaching that
helped both learners and teachers successfully complete their
respective activities pre-Covid-19. This has resulted in a sense of
disconnection between teachers and learners, as well as among
learners. To remedy these feelings of disconnection, the teachers
incorporated elements of the Community of Inquiry Framework
(Garrison, Anderson and Archer 1999) in their remote teaching practices.
This framework highlights the importance of three presences in
developing successful online classes, namely social, cognitive, and
teaching presences. This reflection focusses on how creating a stronger
social presence can enable the development of dynamic and strong
remote learning environments (Darby and Lang 2019: 112), which
provide students with the opportunity to construct and confirm
meaning. Based on a qualitative textual analysis of personal reflections
written by the teachers, three important aspects were identified to
facilitate learner interaction: (1) Familiarity (creating spaces where
learners feel seen and heard); (2) Being present (‘showing up’ in the
asynchronous space as well as the synchronous); and (3) Online
identity (teachers incorporating their unique personalities into the
online sessions). Thus, going forward it illustrates the importance of
explicitly creating a social presence in remote classes to improve
learning.