Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 55, Issue 2, September 2010, Pages 808-820
Computers & Education

Examining online teaching, cognitive, and social presence for adult students

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.03.013Get rights and content

Abstract

Drawing on the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000), this mixed-method case study examined the nature and interactions of teaching, cognitive, and social presence created by online instructors and adult students in diverse course contexts. The study results indicated online instructional design and teaching elements that are crucial prerequisites for a successful online higher educational experience for adult students. The study also informed e-learning designers on the relations between online teaching, cognitive, and social presence.

Introduction

Research on higher education has been predominantly based in historical perspectives, beliefs, and curriculum of a traditional student profile – that of a person who is 17–22 years old (Kasworm, 1990). However, contemporary higher education reflects increasing diversity from this traditional student profile. As a major grouping, adult students now comprise more than 45% of the current post-secondary population in America (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008), and exhibit significant differences in their academic, psychological, and life involvements from traditional students (Richardson and King, 1998, Schlossberg et al., 1989).

Corresponding to adult students’ learning profiles, certain instructional design dimensions, such as collaboration, interactivity, reflection, experiential learning, and sense of community (Eastmond, 1998, Merriam and Brockett, 1997), have been speculated. However, few in-situ studies were conducted to examine the application of those speculations. It also should be noted that research on adult students in higher education has generally examined the issue within face-to-face instructional settings, few studies investigated whether and how an online environment may enhance or reduce the exceptionality of adult students. Research on the interdependence between online instruction and adult students is limited. Therefore, this study examines the nature of online teaching and learning engaged by instructors and adult students in a variety of online course contexts in order to identify effective online design and instruction elements that support a quality learning experience for adult students.

Section snippets

Theoretical framework

Following Richardson and King’s definition (1998), adult students in this study were the ones who returned to or re-entered their post secondary education at an age of 22 or over, or were enrolling on less than a full-time basis. Through a critical review of adult students’ characteristics and representative adult learning theories (i.e., andragogy, self-directed learning, experiential learning, and transformational learning), Cercone (2008) synthesized that high-quality online learning for

Research design

The study used a naturalistic case study approach (Stake, 1995) to document online instructors’ teaching practice and adult students’ online learning experience through a regular school semester. Data was collected through both qualitative and quantitative techniques, including interviewing, artifact analysis of course sites, content analysis of online discussion transcripts, and learning experience survey. Using single- and cross-case analyses, the researcher of the study examined the

The disposition of teaching presence

The artifact analysis of the ten online courses’ sites and documents, supplemented by the interviews of the courses’ instructors and students, indicated a variety of online instructional features and approaches that composed the disposition of teaching presence in different courses as outlined in Table 2.

The central role of teaching presence

In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data indicate that in order to create a community of inquiry for adult students, we should first generate an effective teaching presence with supportive features to reinforce the emerging of cognitive and social presence in an online learning environment. In the Community of Inquiry model, Garrison et al. (2000) emphasized that there should be an interaction and co-presence of the three presence components. Aside from validating such a

Future research

Due to the fact that time is a luxury for the adult student body and research participation is time-consuming, the rate of survey responses in this study is not satisfying. Future research can be improved by increasing the size of the sample pool. Then, this study emphasizes and evaluates mainly self-perceived, process-oriented, and interaction-based learning success. Future study in this area can extend this evaluation design by including test-based learning outcomes (e.g., class grades) and

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