Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
in the online personas of teaching staff. The objective was to understand what level of
personal link is beneficial in building effective forms of communication. To
understand and measure the importance of different features of the staff members
online presence, the study developed three levels of online teaching resources or
presence.
The first level, the control group, contained staff who had no online presence and
delivered learning materials in a classic face-to-face teaching manner. Students knew
them as a teacher in class but had no additional “personal” information.
The second level, passive virtual presence, contained staff who had an online
presence, delivered materials online, but did not actively engage in the online
community or use specific targeted personal short videos, interactive games or active
use of social media. Students knew them as a teacher in class and also had a limited
amount of additional “personal” information through their professional media
profiles.
The third level, the active virtual presence, contained staff that had an online
presence, delivered materials online and actively engaged in the online community
including the use of specific targeted personal short videos and interactive games
scenarios. They also pursued active use of social media to communicate with
students. Students knew them as a teacher in class and also had a significant amount
of additional “personal” information and contact through their detailed personal social
media profiles.
3.1
Mixing Online Teaching Presence and Learning Resources
Most professional personas link closely to the topic of the professional work being
carried out. In these professional scenarios the separation between the individual's
persona and the content of the work can often be blurred. For virtual teaching
presence this soft boundary between content and person provides an interesting
platform for delivering learning materials. Initially the content builds confidence in
the online identity, and draws students to it. Over time the identity becomes trusted
and the identity itself can actively drive students to resources.
This research project sought to understand the role of the human element or
“person” in the virtual teaching presence. Specifically to experiment with different
levels of “person” relative to “content” in the virtual personas and to critically review
the impact, positive or negative, that these changes caused. The goal being to identify
mechanisms through which improvements could be made to a virtual teaching
persona's ability to function as an effective teaching tool.
4
Experimentation and Analysis
To gain a better understanding of the type of resources that were most effective, an
experimental study was carried out using variations on teaching presence (these
differing levels incorporate different types of learning resources used). The key
purpose of the observational study was to identify whether the entertainment oriented
