Learning in the Online Classroom: Exploring the Unique Influence of Social Presence Dimensions

Exploring social presence could help create socially rich learning experiences in an online learning environment. To better understand social presence in online education, the present study conducted an online survey with 430 undergraduate students in the U.S. during the time of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020. Results from an EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) reveal a five-dimensional measurement of social presence in the online learning context, social richness, co-presence, actor within a medium, passive interpersonal, community within a medium. When examining how each dimension plays a role in learning experiences, results from the multiple linear regression analysis of this study suggest that social richness and co-presence are positively associated with cognitive learning, and social richness and co-presence are positively associated with affective learning. Unexpectedly, the data indicate that actor within a medium is negatively associated with cognitive and affective learning experiences. Additionally, social richness and community within a medium are positively associated with motivation to learn. Overall, the study’s findings suggest the importance of studying the multidimensional aspects of social presence because each dimension could have different roles in online learning.