Building Teaching Presence in Online Classes
In their framework outlining educational experiences for online students, Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) identify and explain the critical elements of a Community of Inquiry that support instruction and learning. The elements include: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. While an online educational experience is impacted by the interplay of all three presences, new online teachers may struggle with developing a teaching presence since their own educational experiences as students may be very different from the ones they encounter as online instructors (Lortie, 1975) In this book chapter, the importance of teaching presence will be discussed. Strategies for developing online teacher presence will be examined and technologies for fostering teacher presence will be outlined. The chapter concludes with broad design principles that apply to the construction of online learning environments that foster a strong teacher presence.