Zones of Agency: Understanding Online Faculty Experiences of Presence

As instructors are forced to move their courses online, they are confronted by a sense of isolation and distance from their learners. Research has shown that feelings of loneliness are mitigated when presence is created in the online environment. An interpretive phenomenological analysis was conduc...

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Autor principal: Anita Samuel
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Athabasca University Press 2020
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/49dba0c6e40841e283f63132a508bc8c
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:49dba0c6e40841e283f63132a508bc8c2021-12-02T18:02:58ZZones of Agency: Understanding Online Faculty Experiences of Presence 10.19173/irrodl.v21i4.49051492-3831https://doaj.org/article/49dba0c6e40841e283f63132a508bc8c2020-07-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/4905https://doaj.org/toc/1492-3831 As instructors are forced to move their courses online, they are confronted by a sense of isolation and distance from their learners. Research has shown that feelings of loneliness are mitigated when presence is created in the online environment. An interpretive phenomenological analysis was conducted at a public university in the United States to answer the question: What are the determinants of presence for instructors in online teaching? Twenty-five online instructors from various disciplines, with diverse levels of experience teaching online, were recruited for the study. Interviews, analysis of course syllabi, and observations of course sites revealed five determinants of presence for online instructors: content, format, strategies, technology, and students. The crucial factor in deciding an instructor’s experience of presence was the degree of agency instructors had over these determinants. This paper introduces the Zones of Agency for Online Instructors model and describes how the model can be used to enhance instructors’ experiences of presence. Anita SamuelAthabasca University Pressarticlepresenceonline educationfaculty developmentdeterminants of presenceSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691ENInternational Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, Vol 21, Iss 4 (2020)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic presence
online education
faculty development
determinants of presence
Special aspects of education
LC8-6691
spellingShingle presence
online education
faculty development
determinants of presence
Special aspects of education
LC8-6691
Anita Samuel
Zones of Agency: Understanding Online Faculty Experiences of Presence
description As instructors are forced to move their courses online, they are confronted by a sense of isolation and distance from their learners. Research has shown that feelings of loneliness are mitigated when presence is created in the online environment. An interpretive phenomenological analysis was conducted at a public university in the United States to answer the question: What are the determinants of presence for instructors in online teaching? Twenty-five online instructors from various disciplines, with diverse levels of experience teaching online, were recruited for the study. Interviews, analysis of course syllabi, and observations of course sites revealed five determinants of presence for online instructors: content, format, strategies, technology, and students. The crucial factor in deciding an instructor’s experience of presence was the degree of agency instructors had over these determinants. This paper introduces the Zones of Agency for Online Instructors model and describes how the model can be used to enhance instructors’ experiences of presence.
format article
author Anita Samuel
author_facet Anita Samuel
author_sort Anita Samuel
title Zones of Agency: Understanding Online Faculty Experiences of Presence
title_short Zones of Agency: Understanding Online Faculty Experiences of Presence
title_full Zones of Agency: Understanding Online Faculty Experiences of Presence
title_fullStr Zones of Agency: Understanding Online Faculty Experiences of Presence
title_full_unstemmed Zones of Agency: Understanding Online Faculty Experiences of Presence
title_sort zones of agency: understanding online faculty experiences of presence
publisher Athabasca University Press
publishDate 2020
url https://doaj.org/article/49dba0c6e40841e283f63132a508bc8c
work_keys_str_mv AT anitasamuel zonesofagencyunderstandingonlinefacultyexperiencesofpresence
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