Enhancing Social Presence while Balancing Teacher and Student Wellbeing
Hardy, Dianna, Altena, Sharon, Bandara, Wasana, Holdsworth, Jason, Suwanwiwat, Art (Hemmaphan), Watson, Jason, and Myers, Trina (2023) Enhancing Social Presence while Balancing Teacher and Student Wellbeing. Report. Australian Council of Deans of Information and Communications Technology (ACDICT), Wadalba, NSW, Australia.
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Abstract
[Extract] The outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020 caused global disruption on an unprecedented scale, impacting every aspect of life including higher education. Within three weeks of the World Health Organisation declaring COVID-19 a pandemic, UNESCO reported that on-campus teaching at schools and universities had completely stopped in 185 countries, impacting the learning of 1.5 billion learners globally (Marinoni et al., 2020). University teachers, regardless of interest, preparation, experience or attitude towards online learning, were ill-equipped and placed in a stressful position, where they had no option but to rapidly upskill and digitally transform their teaching within a period of days or, at most, a couple of weeks to ensure the continuity of student learning (Borowiec et al., 2021; Colclasure et al., 2021; Cutri et al., 2020). This stress was further compounded for some teachers who experienced technology, health, and family issues (Adedoyin & Soykan, 2020; Cutri et al., 2020; Ensmann et al., 2021).
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From this disruptive time in higher education, and from the social presence strategies that were deployed during this time, there are many lessons that can be learned. This study sought to investigate how computer science, information systems and information technology teachers at Australian universities can effectively develop sustainable and scalable social presence in online environments. It is anticipated that these strategies are directly applicable to the “new” higher education environment that is emerging in a post-pandemic era. The research questions guiding this study are:
1. How do Australian university information technology educators conceptualise social presence?
2. What strategies do Australian university information technology educators use to establish and maintain social presence in their online classes?
3. What barriers and challenges do Australian university teachers face in developing social presence in online learning environments?
We commence this investigation by examining the relevant literature and theoretical frameworks underpinning this study, before discussing the methodology used for this research. Next, we discuss the findings and implications for practice. We conclude with a brief discussion of areas where further research is required
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