Building ‘Social Presence’ is the activity that an individual can engage in that will define how ‘real’ they are in an online asynchronous environment.
To build community, we must support individual students to establish a sense of presence, which will enable a learner’s personality to shine through. Palloff and Pratt (2007) suggest that the relative anonymity of the online medium can provide a sense of freedom that allows otherwise unexplored parts of their personality to emerge. In fact, learners who may have struggled with the social pressures that come with face-to-face schooling can often flourish online (Pratt, 1996 as cited in Palloff & Pratt 2007). The medium itself has been referred to as the “great equalizer” because how people look, their cultural, ethnic, or social backgrounds become irrelevant.
Every interaction a learner makes online contributes to building a sense of ‘social presence’. The tone they use in discussion, the way they respond to their peers, using emojis, all contribute. Regular participation will initially establish a presence, but the way learners continue to respond and communicate will fill out their personality. It is the teacher’s job to plan the opportunities for this to occur. However, it is also important that the teacher supports the learner in how they go about this. One of the easiest ways to do this by actively participating online and role modeling how to go about interacting with others online. This should be supported by the group establishing guidelines for participation, which not only illustrate what not to do, but also encourage other positive behaviours.
