For many people learning is inherently social. And, if you look at some well-known online communities (Facebook, Linkedin, X etc.) you’ll see identity and presence are a big part of how people connect on these platforms.
Social presence in online learning is about people feeling connected and feeling as if they are interacting with real people (Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2000). It’s especially important online as learners studying at a distance can feel isolated or disconnected. And, isolated learners are more likely to drop out of a course.
For the purposes of this blog, we’re just interested in the assertion that having a social presence in online learning can be beneficial for motivation and learning. So, let’s take a look at three simple ways to get started with social presence.
Avatars are a small easy way to humanise the online space.
And having an image for your avatar encourages learners to add theirs too!
Your avatar really doesn’t have to be a picture of you. But it should be something that relates to you. It could be the view from your window, favourite flower or animal. Some learners like to put a face to the name, but for many, they’ll get to know you through what you say and do.
Learners are interested in finding out who you are. Add a short introduction in your Bio and make sure you're a main facilitator to have it show on the course overview.
Learners can also see your bio (and anyone else's that's chosen to share their bio) by selecting your name or avatar beside your social posts.
Having your bio there let's learners know there's someone there to support them on this course.
Of course you can put anything into this bio section really. But we think that what learners want to see first is your background in the area. Ideally your bio also goes some way to hinting at how passionate you are about the subject and is written in a simple, approachable style.
But remember, your bio should be short and sweet (less than 400 characters). You can get a bit more personal when you give your introduction.
Here's an example of what you might write in a bio:
I'm here to help people with online learning.
I came from teaching science at high schools to designing for online, distance education. I have a masters in Digital Education and love keeping up with best practice to stay fresh.
Learning technologies have so much to offer – it’s all about finding the right tools and the right blend.
Getting learners to fill in their profile is a great way for new learners to get to know the platform, start finding their way around, and build confidence in the online learning space. But, your learners may well need a prompt (and some guidance) from you to fill out their profile.
The same guidelines apply for the avatar for both learners and facilitators. But the bio is where it tends to shift. Your learners might well have a different focus from you. Here’s a few things you might like learners to include in their bio:
Asking learners to write about all of these can be a little onerous (and longer than 400 characters). Instead, choose one or two as suggestions for your learners.
To help you learners with their profile you might post something like this to a talk channel at the very beginning of the course:
Welcome everyone,
I’m Caitlin, the facilitator for this course. I’ve filled out a bit about me in my profile (to see it, simply select Read bio on the Overview page). It would be great if you could fill in your profile so I and other learners can get to know a bit about you.
Filling in your profile is also a great way to get to know the platform and start to find your way around. See How to set up your learner profile for instructions.
In your bio you might like to tell us a bit about:
- Your background or interest in the subject
- Your goals for learning
Look forward to hearing more about you all!
Completing your bio is a great first step to increasing your presence (and, it’s also a great way for learners to show theirs!). It shows learners the human helping them to learn and lets them show their humanness.
After adding your bio and avatar to your account, the next step in setting up a facilitator presence is to say hello to your class in a talk channel.
Let them know you exist and that you're there to help. It'll make a world of difference to your learners. Especially those who are new to learning online.
Some experienced online facilitators recommend a video as a great way to welcome learners to the course, and to you as their facilitator.
When you’re starting a course with a new group of learners, having a collection of introductions in one easy-to-read-through place is really useful. The talk channels (or in-page discussions) are best for this.
Although many learners will check out your (and other’s) profiles, not everyone will. Profiles are typically great for people to duck into when they start working or discussing with someone to remind themselves about the person. But reading through everyone's profiles is generally not the first thing learners will do when they start a course.
Your bio also has to be broad enough to cover all the courses you look after. Whereas your introduction for a course can be a little more specific or cover things related to that particular course.
For us, we've decided to focus on how to show learners you’re passionate, credible and relatable. Generally introductions include your background and interests as they pertain to this particular course.
You might want learners to know you’re:
Here's an example introduction:
Hello,
I’m Caitlin, your facilitator for this course.
As your facilitator I’ll be sending out weekly messages to say what you should be completing, checking in on progress, marking key activities and assessment and giving you feedback for them, guiding our group discussions. But really I’m just here to help you learn and succeed.
I used to be a high school science teacher and began my journey into learning technology with just a few online revision programmes. From there I branched into designing for online, distance education while completing my Masters in Digital Education. I think learning technologies have so much to offer traditional education systems – it’s all about finding the right tools and the right blend.
In my personal life I actually tend to disconnect from technology and spend my time outdoors, especially in the garden. Though I have found that technology can be a real help there too (thanks automated watering systems and planting reminders!).
As I mentioned above, I’m here to help. So, the best way to contact me is either through the talk channels or by email: caitlin@example.com. I check both daily, but typically respond to all queries from the day in the afternoons.
When thinking about what to ask learners to put in their introductions, think about why we do introductions.
In the first instance, it’s often to help them make connections to other learners. For instance, if you’re at an event your friend is introducing you to someone new, they’ll often include some information to help the two new people find some common ground – “Kai, this is Caitlin. Caitlin does a lot in online learning. Caitlin, Kai works in Human Resources and helps put together the training for his staff”. In this example, our host was finding the common ground of education. So, think about what would help common ground for your learners. It could be:
In the second instance, you want to make sure you’re showing learners that this learning space is for them too. They have a voice. And we want to hear it. So, think about including some questions that could allow them to show who they are. For instance:
Lastly, you might also want to learn a bit about the learners to support your teaching. This might include questions about:
Of course, as with the bio, asking learners to write about all of these can be way too much. Instead, choose two-four as suggestions for your learners.
Although the profile and introductions serve somewhat different purposes, you can see there is some overlap between them. For this reason, facilitators often look to other forms of introductions or icebreakers to help learners get to know them (and one another).
We’ll have an article just on options for icebreakers coming your way soon.
Our blog Rewritten by machine and new technology explores the many reasons why online courses haven’t killed the teaching star and describes some of the "pieces of pzazz" you add as facilitators. In it you'll see that although your role may have changed, you’re still an absolutely necessary piece of the online learning puzzle.
We also have a blog Creating a facilitation plan which details what you can include in a facilitation plan to maintain presence throughout the course. In it, you’ll find the different areas where facilitator presence can really help, as well as a free template!
The sorts of actions and activities we’ve described in this blog also fit in nicely with a number of online learning theories and frameworks. For example the Community of inquiry framework, the Access and motivation and Online socialisation stages of the Five Stage Model, and Tone/Climate principle of the TEC-VARIETY framework. Follow any one of these links for more information about the model/framework as well as more ideas for activities and actions along the lines of social presence.
Introductions are a great first step to show your presence in the online world. And, it’s also a great way for learners to have a voice, feel included and important.
So, to get started with your facilitator presence:
If you’re unsure or time poor, start small – just a name and where you’re from. Then next time you start with a new class, come back to this article and choose one more idea to include. Remember a big aim for introductions is to humanise the online space, so anything that shows them you’re an actual caring human is on the right path.
