Purpose

What was the extent of social presence and teacher presence for Personalized learning in discussion platform in Google doc?’

A common technological adaptation to provide personalized learning has become computer-mediated communication (CMC) (Dron & Anderson, 2014, p. 105). Institutions for higher education are looking at CMC, particularly discussion through Google doc as a medium with versatility to provide education programs access anywhere. Google doc is one of the leading platforms for quality learning process, which is facilitating the process of learning through Community of Inquiry model. The three elements which interact in the process include, Social Presence, Teaching Presence and Cognitive Presence.      

Learning theories suggests that Cognitive Presence is essential for successful learning in higher education (Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012, p.21). Cortical thinking in this regards denote that learning experience need to encompass integration, exploration and application of theories. Through community of inquiry, individuals will be able to derive a meaning.

The implication of social presence allows demonstration of individual attributes, of members within the Community of Inquiry in the community (Thomas, 2011, p.86). Through social presence, it becomes possible to enhance student motivation and engagement by supporting of cognitive presence.  

It is an essential component of the learning processes, to have teaching presence. With teaching presence, there is support in cognitive as well as social presence factor to catering to educational outcomes (LeNoue, Hall & Eighmy, 2011, p. 96). There needs to be involvement from the teacher as well as the student. Teaching presence generally involves three primary categories, which includes direct instruction, facilitating discourse and organisation and design.  

• Task Overview –  Principles of OPL

The Task 2 activity of our group discussed ‘The Principles of OPL’. The principles discussed in the module discussion attend to meet the needs of students as well as teachers. In this learning activity, students were given an opportunity for flexible learning and learn in a differentiated manner through discussions online.

The activity included responding to the Module questions that was asked and getting feedback regarding the same. It included reflecting on the benefits of OPL and applying the same to the context of the student’s themselves. The student’s had to respond to the Module questions on the basis of their own learning and understanding of OPL. The teacher responded to each post, by thanking the student for responding to the post, and adding to any possible aspects that the student might have left aside. The topic was developed through discussion where various students posted regarding their own learning and feedback; this was done as if a replication of the classroom environment had been created. 

Methodology

Purpose

I made use of the ‘Online Personalized Learning’ Google page in order to analyze the text-based interactions with the application of the Community of Inquiry model. I went on to select pages such as;

• students who possessed knowledge of completing previous tasks
• basis of variety and depth of responses that was written
• the number of students who had responded

The aim of this analysis was to address the question “What was the extent of social presence and teacher presence for Personalized learning in discussion platform in Google doc?”

The aim of this study concerned determining the effectiveness of social presence and teacher presence for Personalized learning through Google doc. With the aid of the Community of Inquiry model, it was possible to undertake analysis on the basis of a template with varied indicators. The indicators provide consistent coding with objective of the transcript messages that can be found associated with social presence, teaching experience and cognitive presence. While conducting analysis that would be relevant to the specific task, I had undertaken a range of specific indicators prior to reviewing of teacher’s and student comment in regards to specific category. The elements as detailed in Table 1 was constructed in post reviewing of comments that had been made by teacher and student on the Google doc. The activity involved responding to a replying to the teacher’s module questions and then having feedback with discussion in the forum. Grant Bailey, Shirley Agostinho and Nafal Alqahtani is the teacher in the discussion forum with all other being students, who had responded to the module question regarding OPL.  Students in the discussion forum included posts from, Lisa Craig, Ylana Bradney, Meridith Southern, Michael Siega, Matthew Langton, Nadine Grimshaw, Karen Lupton, Ning Wang and  Amanda Renn.

The entire text of transcripts was copied into Google Doc and then the ‘Text Help Study Skills’ highlighting App was used to code and in order to categorize comments. Some comments were wholly categorized into single code and some were broken down to include multiple indicators. Some phrases included a degree of ‘cross over’ where there were some comments that were categorized into more than once code. There were some elements of flexibility that was considered for the coding process to arrive at a broader finding base.  

Table 1: Coding of Transcripts

Element	Category	Indicator	Code	# of Responses	Total Qty
Cognitive Presence	Integration	Connecting of ideas	1	4	12
Exploration	Exchanging of information	2	5
Resolution	Understanding ideas in own context	3	3
Social Presence	Open communication	Communication present amongst members	4	6	17
Emotional Expression	Conveying of expression and use of informational language	5	5
Group Cohesion	Evidence of Collaboration	6	6
Teaching Presence	Direct Instruction	Facilitation of discussion contributing to the Module Question	7	4	15
Instructional Management	Detailed understanding of the topic	8	6
Building Understanding	Development of understanding	9	5

The coding process that had been undertaken for the transcript provided detailed and clear understanding related to the prevalence of Social Presence and Teaching Presence within the group discussion as compared to Cognitive Presence. Social Presence and Teacher Presence has been found to have highest consistency amongst the varied indicators.

Results

Social Presence rated to the highest with consistency amongst the various indicators. Various students in the group discussion engagement ended their sentence with, ‘engage students by presenting multiple ways of completing task’. This indicated emotional expression where student’s available the opportunity to undertake learning, i.e. Cognitive Presence through their Emotional Expression (flexibility learning environment). Open Communication was present through the entire transcript as the students as well as the teacher engaged in a degree of discussion with one another. With the teacher giving feedback and student’s acknowledging such feedback, such as “Nafal, Katrina or Nick may have different views on this’ or ‘Thank You very much for choosing our activities, you have provided us with great assistance’. Group cohesion was demonstrated as all students responded to personalized learning. The comment   

Cognitive Presence rate the lowest as, there was limited information exchange or connecting to understanding of ideas integration, exploration and resolution. The degree of information exchange, analysed by going through the comments revealed, students mostly replicated a Module Learning by answering to 2 specific questions. Application of understanding to their own context was more or less not detailed as it included answering to specific set of question. There was no additional information or exploration of ideas that has taken place. However, the teacher was able to cater to Personalized learning experience by motivating each student to reply on the Module question and providing feedback related to the same.       

The Educational Experience was provided through Setting Climate in Social Presence and Teaching Presence.

The entire activity has been immensely effective with contribution from student participants as well as teachers. The analysis of the transcript revealed that Social Presence and Teacher Presence are integral for Personalized Learning in Google Doc, as they coordinate the entire process. The entire discussion forum effectiveness can be increased further by incorporating in a greater degree of Cognitive Presence as well, along with contribution from Social Presence and Teacher Presence. The following steps can be included for the same;

• Cognitive Presence can be enhanced with students posing a new idea with their answer to the Module Question.
• Cognitive Presence can be increased in case student’s pose related question along with their answer to the Module Question.
• Cognitive Presence can be depicted in case Student represents a connection between constructivism and OPL.
• Social Presence can be increased by including a Wiki link
• Social Presence can provide insights into future or further learning experience
• Social Presence can be increased in case teachers modeling can include informal language for student discussion
• Teacher Presence can be enhanced with all the three teachers responding to the posts to answers made by students.
• Teachers Presence can be enhanced when they are able to provide a more detailed insight into previous Module learning, providing an integrated framework.

Learning with Google Doc can be presented and applied across varied range of settings. I plan to undertake similar response system to Module Questions, as a part of applying OPL approach to my teaching. I would include YouTube and Google Chat session towards collaborating on a particular set task. The Community of Inquiry model allowed a reflected approach in Online Personalized Learning experiences that can attend to social, teaching and cognitive presence for facilitating enhancement in student’s learning.    

References

Dabbagh, N., & Kitsantas, A. (2012). Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. The Internet and higher education, 15(1), 3-8. Accessed from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1096751611000467

Dron, J., & Anderson, T. (2014). Teaching crowds: Learning and social media. Athabasca University Press. Accessed from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-DuQBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=extent+of+social+presence+and+teacher+presence+for+Personalized+learning+in+discussion+platform+in+Google+doc&ots=Tho-_LiVN_&sig=hhWSWVP4F4ycImCVkWX-ARMAx08#v=onepage&q&f=false

LeNoue, M., Hall, T., & Eighmy, M. A. (2011). Adult education and the social media revolution. Adult learning, 22(2), 4-12. Accessed from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/104515951102200201

Thomas, P. Y. (2011). Cloud computing: A potential paradigm for practising the scholarship of teaching and learning. The Electronic Library, 29(2), 214-224. Accessed from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/02640471111125177