As a result of personal computers and broadband Internet connections become very popular, online learning converts asynchronous learning into synchronous learning or blended learning. This implies that synchronous communication becomes an essential part of online learning and learners now are able to see others face-to-face online just like in traditional classrooms. In the past, the major difference between cyber classroom and traditional classroom is that cyber classroom cannot provide face to face interaction. However, a synchronous cyber classroom features real-time and multiple video communication channels can overcome this shortage and even promoted better attention and engagement for learners. Social presence is an indicator to measure the degree of social interaction, determined by the perception of an individual to environments and other individuals. The prior researches have indicated that increasing social presence is helpful to enhancing learning participation and satisfaction in a synchronous cyber classroom. Hence, we argue that promoting social presence in a synchronous cyber classroom would have a positive effect on learners¡¦ learning participation and satisfaction. The aim of this study is to explore the factors affecting social presence in a synchronous cyber classroom. We will apply social learning theory as a basis to verify if social presence does have a positive effect on learning outcome and what factors affect social presence in a synchronous cyber classroom learning environment. Because the perception about social presence is accumulated as time goes by, a questionnaire survey is used in this study. The target population is drawn upon the learners who have had real experiences of participations in learning with synchronous cyber classrooms. The questionnaires were carried out on the Web. The subjects were learners from the National Sun Yan-Sen Cyber University, the K12 digital school and some others from the PTT BBS. The total number of valid questionnaires is 252. The research result indicates that the factors affecting social presence in a synchronous cyber classroom are intimacy, user friendliness, responsiveness, extraversion, and cue richness. Moreover, social presence does have a positive effect on learning participation and satisfaction. The contribution of this study is finding out the factors affecting social presence from the social learning theory perspective. If teachers could pay attention to these factors and try to apply them for enhancing learners¡¦ social presence, learners¡¦ learning outcome is greatly improved in a synchronous cyber classroom environment. This study is concluded by pointing out some suggestions for practice and future research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0806108-230134 |
| Date | 06 August 2008 |
| Creators | Jui, Mao |
| Contributors | none, none, Nian-Shing Chen |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0806108-230134 |
| Rights | off_campus_withheld, Copyright information available at source archive |
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