Social presence in synchronous video conferencing: a case study at the Lebanese University Faculty of Education/ Pedagogy

Abstract

The Lebanese University was forced to adopt online learning after the Covid-19 pandemic, and the need has emerged to examine social presence in  synchronous teaching. Adopting a collective case study design, the study examined online social presence in 18 videos of 9 instructors from the Lebanese university, Faculty of Education/ Pedagogy (Spring 2020). Specifically, it examined to what extent instructors could maintain affection, interaction and cohesion. A 23 item customized and validated checklist based on social presence categories of  was  used to analyse three  social presence categories:  Affective Response (represented through emotional expressions, use of humor, …), Interactive Response (statements to continue discussion thread, quoting from others’ messages,  ), and Cohesive Response (such as  expressions that address participants by name, addressing group using inclusive pronouns …). Results have shown that instructors managed to establish high social presence, manifested in their ability to maintain affection as seen in their facial expressions and sensed in their voice tone and sympathy. It was also shown that cohesion was highly present as teachers shared their tangible experience with students and humoured with them, for example. However, interaction was seen to be relatively low as some students did not participate unless they were called upon.