*Community

One of the biggest differences you've probably noticed in your own online learning has to do with the issue of social presence. Social presence is, basically, convincing others in your online learnng community that you're a real person. Without it, collaboration doesn't go so well. 
Take a few minutes to look over the following articles and watch the video by Patrick Lowenthal. 

• Lowenthal (2009) Social Presence
• Peterson, Byer, and Putnam (2018), "Synchronous and asynchronous discussions: Effects on cooperation, belonging, and affect"
• "Talking Social Presence with Dr. Patrick Lowenthal"

social presence

Your Task: 
Write a 350-500 word reflection on your own experience with community in online distance learning. In your reflection, refer to the readings and videos presented here, give specific examples of your experiences, and cite at least one new source. 

After you've posted, reply to at least two of your colleagues. 

Tips for getting the most out of an online discussion: 

1. Model good social presence. Let us see your personality. Humor is fine. Pretentious academic language kills the conversation. 
2. Clearly address the prompt. 
3. Get us to think more broadly. We want to learn with and from you.
4. Make us want to read and reply to what you wrote. For instance, as one of my colleagues pointed out, no one wants to click on "Randall's reponse to #3", so use "sexy" titles.  
5. Have fun with this. 
6. Save all of your forum discussions - your posts and replies from others. You'll be surprised at how often they'll lead to new resources for research! 

Research team, post by Jan 25.
Reply to the research team's questions by Jan 26.
Research team, reply to the replies by Jan 27.