Annotation 3

Rourke, L, Anderson, T, Garrison, D.R., (1999),  ‘Assessing Social Presence in Asynchronous Text-Based Computer Conferencing,’ Journal of Distance Education, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 50-71.

Summary: The authors of this study explore in more depth the aspect of social presence from the Community of Inquiry Model, developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (1999).  Firstly, an in-depth review of academic research regarding social presence in terms of affective, cohesive, and interactive responses in educational contexts is conducted (p. 7-10). A format is then presented for assessing online computer conferencing environments, including examples from the two course transcripts that are analysed for the purposes of this paper.  They also highlight potential areas of concern with their review process, specifically interrater reliability and unit of analysis (p. 11).

Intended Audience: This paper would be useful to anyone interested in conducting an analysis of social presence in a computer conferencing environment.  Both teachers and researchers would find this paper helpful. 

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to present a template which could be used by researchers or practitioners to assess social presence in online learning environments.  From the three categories of social presence previously mentioned, 12 indicators have been developed for the analysis of interactions in computer conferencing contexts (p. 61).  The information and indicators presented in this study are meant to be used as guidelines for further research.

Comparison to other work:  The findings concerning the social presence aspect of online communities, specifically humour and expression of emotions, align closely with the findings of Meyer & Jones (2012).  Earlier work by Garrison et al (2009) acts as a catalyst for this study and others (Anderson et al, 2001).

Supporting the topic: This article directly supports the topic by investigating and presenting a format for assessing one specific aspect of asynchronous online learning: social presence.