The Effects of Teacher Social Presence on Student Satisfaction, Engagement, and Learning

Abstract

This research experimentally manipulated the social presence cues in instructor's messages to students. The context was an online professional development one credit course with 1:1 mentoring of students. Additionally, student learning goals, beliefs about learning, and levels of trust were examined as factors that may mitigate the effects of social presence. Results indicate that social presence affects the learner's interactions and perception of the mentor but has no effect on perceived learning, satisfaction, engagement, or the quality of their final course product. These findings suggest social presence is a correlational rather than a causal variable associated with student learning. Exploratory analyses suggest no effect of student learning goals, but that trust is associated with performance.