Social Presence and LMS

The LMS that I would use with my students most effectively would be Teamie and then Schoology.  Canvas comes in a close third place.  All three of these LMS would work for my high school students as it is close to what they would see in college courses.  All of them reflect social presence.  The first thing I looked for was what Rubin et. al referred to as LMS affordance perspectives and usability for instructors.  An example of this is how easy it is to communicate as well as how easy it is to find course elements.  They also discuss affordance perspectives and usability for students as well.  It is importance that these are met as they affect social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence. (Rubin et. al, 2013) Teamie seemed to have the simplest interface upon login.  I didn’t have to change it when I setup my course.  When students login they can see a dashboard that shows them everything they need.  I would equate it to a table of contents.  I find the section and turn to the page.  In Teamie, I find the section and I click on it.  In Schoology, you have to go into the course settings and change it from the default landing page of materials to updates.  Schoology does provide a dashboard interface very similar to blackboard. 

I liked Teamie as it is more app oriented.  Buttons are rounder and resembles a mobile app.  This provides a social presence for students where they feel more included because they have to click on a button vs. a link to get what they need.

From an instructor’s standpoint I especially liked Teamie because of the ability to see who has read material and sending a friendly reminder.  This would constitute that teaching presence that’s students need in instruction management as well as social presence because interaction can take place when the teacher reaches out to the student.  I didn’t see that in Schoology or canvas.  I also like the format of posts in Teamie.  It has that feel of twitter to it where students and instructors can add hashtags as well as mention fellow classmates.  Olesnikov-Jessopsays Teamie is trying to make online learning social and fun to improve student engagement. 

Isaacson talked about the Transactional Distance theory in that the learner autonomy which is the learner's perception of independent and interdependent participation and the student's level of self-directed learning is important to their perception of social presence.  Teamie provides students with the ability to see when a reading is no longer available to them.  It also provided a status bar of progress for them to independently direct their learning. Teamie allows file, audio and text submissions for assignments.  Again allowing complete interaction as well as self direction in their choice of interaction.  Rubin et.al discussed the importance of student satisfaction with an LMS as an affordance that increases social presence.  When student LMS affordances and usability is perceived as usable and manageable, student engagement will increase. 

Works Cited

Bentley, K. J. (n.d.). The Centralitiy of Social Presence in Online Teaching and Learning. http://wp.vcu.edu/online-learning-summit/files/2012/05/Bentley.pdf

Joanna C. Dunlap, P. R. (n.d.). Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter to Enhance Social Presence. Journal of Information Systems Education, 129-135. <http://www.fp.ucalgary.ca/maclachlan/EDER_679.06_Fall_2009/tweeting_the_night_away.pdf>

Patrick R. Lowenthal, J. C. (2010). From pixel on a screen to real person in your students' lives: Establishing social presence using digital storytelling. The Internet and higher Education, 70-72.http://www.cehd.umn.edu/PSTL/Water/Resources/Documents/LowenthalDunlap2010.pdf

Rubin, Beth, Ron Fernandez, and Maria D. Avgerinou. "The Effects of Technology on the Community of Inquiry and Satisfaction with Online Courses." Internet and High Education 17 (2013): 48-57. 5 Oct. 2012. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. <http://www.sciencedirect.com.cmich.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S1096751612000632>.