Gunawardena , C.N. and Zittle, F.J. (1997)
Social presence as a predictor of satisfaction within a computer-mediated conferencing environment
The American Journal of Distance Education, vol. 11 No. 3.
Reviews the research of
1. Spear & Lea, 1992
2. Walther 1992
Both studies consider the p8 ‘social psychological dimension from the ‘social cues’ perspective’ using
· Short et al social presence
· Rutter cueless model
· Keisler’s reduced social cues perspective
S& L, and Walther both conclude that social presence of Short et al the most influential
Short et al definition of social presence
‘ the degree of salience of the other person in the interaction and the consequent salience of the interpersonal relationships’ i.e. how real is the other person
The present articles identifies two concepts that arise out of their definition definition
Intimacy ( based on Argyle & Dean, 1965) Social presence as a quality of the medium itself. Level of intimacy depends on physical distance, eye contact, smiling. Therefore text based CMC low on this measure.
Immediacy (Wiener and Mehrabian, 1968) a measure of the psychological distance that a communicator puts between himself and herself and the object of his/her communication - p9 ‘depends on the communicator and their presence in the sequence of interaction’ p10 ‘ interactivity is a quality ( potential) that may be realized by some or remain an unfulfilled option for others’ p 11 ‘ Research on social presence and CMC has indicated that despite the low social bandwidth of the medium, users of computer networks are able to project their identities, whether ‘real’ or ‘pseudo’ feel the presence of others online, and create communities with commonly agreed upon conventions and norms that bind them together in exploring issues of common interest’
Teacher immediacy as a predictor of student satisfaction (first paragraph of page 10) –
Also cf Cooper ( Empathy in Education) p10 ‘ Teacher immediacy behaviors include both verbal and nonverbal actions such as gesturing, smiling, using humour and vocal variety, personalizing examples, addressing students by name, questioning, praising, initiating discussion, encouraging feedback, and avoiding tense body positions’
Digital skills/literacies ( teachers and students/ Design
P24 ‘It is these skills and techniques, rather than the medium, that will ultimately impact students’ perceptions of interaction and social presence, which will influence their satisfaction with computer conferencing’
P24 Social Presence
P 9 ‘ According to Short et al, argument , social presence is both a factor of the medium, as well as the communicators and their presence in a sequence of interaction’
Commenting on fact that only students who rated SP as high used emoticons p11‘ this raises the questions of individual differences along personality or socio-psychological lines, and begs the need for future research to investigate IDs 9 other than learning styles) as mediating factors in CMC satisfaction, as well as learning outcomes.’
Verbal immediacy
Parenthetical a construction that can be used to extend the meaning of a word or phrase but is not one of the main constituents of a sentence, eg interposed to indicate meaning
P11 research has also indicated that CMC users develop an ability to express missing non verbal cues in written forum ( emtoicons)…. .. and paraenthtical metalinguistic cues such as ‘hmmmm’ or ‘yuk’ ( Hilz, 1994; Walther, 1992). ‘
Aim of present study
How effective is social presence as a predictor of overall learner satisfaction?
2y p12 ;to examine, whether or not there was an interaction effect between participants’ uuse of emoticons, social presence and satistfaction
Focuses on immediacy using bipolar scales such as personal/impersonal, social/unsocial
Context similar to DZX222 survey. 50 adult distance learners enrolled at 5 universities . Course – learner centered collaborative learning model. 61 item questionnaire – not dissimilar to that of the DZX survey
Measuring Social presence categories into which the 55 survey items fell
· · Active participation
· · Attitude to CMC
· · Barriers to participation
· · Confidence in mastering CMC
· · Adequate training alongside
· · Technical experience in using CMC
· · Overall satisfaction with the course.
One questionnaire item asked if they used emoticons
Findings (based on step wise regression analysis - assumes latent variables in construction of the survey rather than identifying them with data reduction techniques)) reliability and validity checks carried out.
· P19 ‘ social presence alone is a strong predictor of satisfaction in text-based computer conferencing’
· Interaction between use of emoticons and social presence. P21 ‘ at low levels of social presence, the use of emoticons had no effect on satisfaction, while at higher levels of social presence, there is an improvement on satisfaction as emoticon use increases’ p22 ‘ a rich-get-richer scenario’ ‘Stenfield’s (1986) study of social and task-orientated use of email where those most likely to use computers socially did not perceive them as low in social presence’
· P23 ‘ a majority of participants agreed that there were more social and personal messages toward the latter part of the conference than during the initial stages’ ? implications for building online communities.
Conclusion
P23 implications for design ‘ equal attention must be paid to designing techniques that enhance social presence’
