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THE DEFINITION OF TEACHING PRESENCE
The following is excerpted
from Shea, P., Fredericksen, E., Picket, A., & Pelz, W.
(2004). Faculty Development, Student Satisfaction, and
Reported Learning in the SUNY Learning Network. In T. Duffy
& J. Kirkley (Eds.). Learner-Centered Theory and Practice
in Distance Education: Cases from Higher Education. (pp.
354-360) Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Anderson and colleagues
(2001) defined teaching presence as "the design,
facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes
for the realization of personally meaningful and
educationally worthwhile learning outcomes." . . . Teaching
presence has three components: instructional design and
organization, facilitating discourse, and direct instruction
. . .
Instructional Design and Organization
Support for instructional design and organization [at SLN]
is provided in many ways. For example, all faculty are
provided a shell structure from which to build their
courses. The SLN course management system (CMS) embeds a
common instructional design format and organization into
each course. It is, however, flexible, and faculty can alter
the format to suit their needs and the specific learning
outcomes of their courses . . .
Facilitating Discourse
The task of facilitating discourse is necessary to
sustain learner engagement and refers to "focused and
sustained deliberation that marks learning in a community of
inquiry" (Anderson et al., 2001). The authors provide
indicators of the act of facilitating discourse, which
include identifying areas of agreement and disagreement;
seeking to reach consensus and understanding; encouraging,
acknowledging, or reinforcing student contributions; setting
climate for learning; drawing in participants and prompting
discussion; and assessing the efficacy of the process . . .
Direct Instruction
Anderson and colleagues also included indicators of
direct instruction in their framework for analysis of
teaching presence. These indicators include presenting
content and questions, focusing the discussion on specific
issues, summarizing discussion, confirming understanding,
diagnosing misperceptions, injecting knowledge from diverse
sources, and responding to technical concerns . . .
Reference
Anderson, T., Rourke, L., Garrion, D.R. & Archer, W.
(September 2001) Assessing teaching presence in a computer
conferencing context. Journal of Asynchronous Learning
Networks.
Available online at
www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v5n2/v5n2_anderson.asp |
