Nurturing Social Presence in a Blended Learning Environment

Viktor Magnusson, Åsa Devine, Michaela Sandell

2023

Abstract

The ambition of this development study is to explore the opportunity to put the knowledge gained during the COVID-19 pandemic into practice in a blended, post-COVID, learning environment. The focus is to explore how a combination of digital and face-to-face activities may allow for fostering social presence among undergraduate students. The Social Presence model and the five elements of Affective Association, Community of Cohesion, Instructor Investment, Interaction Intensity, and Knowledge and Experience, encompass the theoretical framework of the study. The contextual setting is the first course of The Marketing Programme at Linnaeus University in Sweden, a bachelor program with a 50% Swedish intake and 50% international intake. Given the diverse background of the students in this course, challenges are typically encountered in relation to community building. Empirical data was collected during the fall of 2022 among the enrolled students using an online questionnaire. While the results from this study should be seen as preliminary, they offer an inspiring glimpse of how to nurture social presence in a blended learning environment.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Magnusson V., Devine Å. and Sandell M. (2023). Nurturing Social Presence in a Blended Learning Environment. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-641-5, SciTePress, pages 519-526. DOI: 10.5220/0011967800003470

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu23,
author={Viktor Magnusson and Åsa Devine and Michaela Sandell},
title={Nurturing Social Presence in a Blended Learning Environment},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,},
year={2023},
pages={519-526},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0011967800003470},
isbn={978-989-758-641-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,
TI - Nurturing Social Presence in a Blended Learning Environment
SN - 978-989-758-641-5
AU - Magnusson V.
AU - Devine Å.
AU - Sandell M.
PY - 2023
SP - 519
EP - 526
DO - 10.5220/0011967800003470
PB - SciTePress