Teacher social presence in online education. Good practices

Abstract

Online, virtual or Distance Education refers to that model of teaching which consists in a didactic, Information and Communication technology-mediated dialog, that favors greater flexibility and personalization of learning. Teaching English in a virtual context implies necessarily creating a sense of teacher social presence. This concept refers to the state or attitude of being aware of the participants, available, supportive and keeping emotionally connected and committed, truly interested in learning and personality growth. The purpose of this article is to share some good practices that have worked in the Open University for Adults, a leading Distance Education institution in the Dominican Republic. A Google forms survey was applied to a sample of eight facilitators. The survey consisted of a list of strategies, resulting from an extensive Literature review, which referred to teacher social presence and popular procedures to promote collaboration and interactivity in synchronous meetups. The results indicated the generalized use of the strategies that favor the previous-to-course preparation, communication, collaboration, interactivity and effective formative assessment. Complementary relations were identified between the teacher social presence strategies and the procedures used in the online synchronous meetups. Having identified these good practices could help other online facilitators to promote a facilitator-participant emotional connection.