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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Main Author:	Anita Samuel
Format:	article
Language:	EN
Published:	Athabasca University Press 2020
Subjects:	presence online education faculty development determinants of presence Special aspects of education LC8-6691
Online Access:	https://doaj.org/article/49dba0c6e40841e283f63132a508bc8c
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id	oai: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
_version_	1718378803612352512

Zones of Agency: Understanding Online Faculty Experiences of Presence

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