Presence at a distance

Abstract

In a technology-rich world, human relations are increasingly mediated through the interfaces of our digital devices. This is also true for certain arenas of the educational sector. More likely than not, a student enrolling in any higher education program today will be confronted with one or more pedagogical situations in which human interaction is not immediate but experienced through technology. While some students may take a class or two online in an otherwise face-to-face program, others may traverse a full learning trajectory without ever physically meeting their instructors or fellow students, as is the case in distance education. While increasingly sophisticated communication technologies may coax our senses, the fact remains: if our communication partner is not really there but physically absent, this will likely have psychological ramifications. Although the peculiarities of this increasingly prevalent mode of communication have long been the subject of investigation, with abounding speculation as to the wide-ranging consequences on communication processes and, in extension, learning processes relying on communication, the actual effects of mediation and their relevance for online distance learning are still not well understood. The notion of social presence is one of the most prominent attempts at understanding the unique psychological properties of mediated communication. It refers to the degree to which we fall for the illusion of non-mediation, or in other words, our failure to perceptually integrate what we know in the abstract: That we are talking to a screen. Notably, even in communication media with modest face-to-face fidelity, for example text-based asynchronous messaging, it is possible to experience relatively high degrees of social presence. That is, we feel that our communication partner is “real” and “there”. Due to this paradox, we cannot deduce a simple and monocausal relation between technological sophistication of the communication medium and the experience of social presence. In fact, it appears that there are multiple processes and determinants at work accounting for this phenomenon, which, however, are still largely uncharted. As evocative and relevant this concept may appear –the sheer volume of studies attest to its popularity–, its practical benefits in advancing our knowledge on the psychology of mediated communication in online distance learning have been relatively small, a fact that may be traced back to a history of inconsistent definitions and the resulting lack of cumulative research progress. Section A “Introduction and Theoretical Foundations” lays out what we currently do and don’t know about the psychology of mediated communication, how this relates to online distance learning and some of its classic issues, as well as the state of research in this educational arena, with a specific focus on the online environments in which mediated learning experiences take place. Following this, a thorough review of the concept of social presence identifies central challenges of the literature and a model to guide the following steps is proposed. Section B “Empirical Studies” lays out the central research questions of this thesis and presents five chapters to answer them. As a whole, the quantitative studies within these chapters are geared toward a better understanding of the phenomenon of social presence, a more comprehensive theoretical modeling around it, as well as practical application of this knowledge toward enhancing online distance learning experiences. To this end, data from a total of 1023 students at FernUniversitat in Hagen was collected and analyzed. Zooming in on each individual study and its contribution, the following steps lead to this thesis’ goals: Building on important previous work, the first investigation, a scale validation study, aimed to put a stake in the ground with respect to the definition and measurement of social presence for the remainder of this thesis and, hopefully, the field more generally. In a second step, the explanatory scope was widened to account for processes and variables, that, together, may provide a more comprehensive picture of social presence and related socio-emotional variables in online distance learning. Structural equation modeling yielded an empirically supported and theoretically sound model with practical implications. In the third study, drawing from the tenets of the previously established model, a central proposition to enhance social presence in online distance learning environments was tested experimentally, further supporting the model through causal evidence while also yielding novel design recommendations. For the remaining two studies, the scope of theorizing was again widened. The fourth study investigated an emerging psychological phenomenon observed in social networking sites, ambient awareness. In a first sample, its prevalence in online distance learning environments was explored and, in a second sample, a theoretically plausible connection to social presence was assessed. Lastly, due to the historic roots of social presence, most empirical investigations have neglected the potential role of individual differences. For this reason, the fifth chapter investigated the merits of a trait-level view of social presence by examining its relationship to personality. The integration and cumulation of newly generated knowledge is especially important, as this synthesizing work has been found to be lacking in much of the literature on social presence. For this reason, a comprehensive discussion is presented in section C “Discussion and Future Directions”, in which the contributions of this thesis toward the challenges of social presence are laid out. Despite some questions remaining unanswered, the interpretation of findings allows us to conclude that significant progress has been made toward a better identification, explanation, and application of social presence. As a visual summary, the final research model is presented in its modified and extended form, detailing all hypotheses examined in this thesis. Further condensing the findings of this thesis, a set of questions informing a tentative theory of social presence are answered succinctly. Through these summaries on different levels of elaboration, we learn that social presence is a complex psychological phenomenon that is multi-causally determined and nuanced in terms of its benefits for online distance learning. Taking into account some limitations within the works presented in this thesis, potential steps for improving future research efforts are discussed in light of recent developments in the field of online distance learning. Critically, however, in order to further build our knowledge of social presence in online distance learning, two major road-blocks on the path to a new phase of social presence research need be considered specifically. The first relates to the dubious connection to learning achievement. The second pertains to a lack of integration of social presence into our broader knowledge base of human psychology. Two frameworks that specifically address these problems are proposed, with consequential implications for future research. The thesis ends with a brief reflection.