October 6, 2007

E-Coaching Core Message #2 Fall 2007 (Tip #51)

A Garden of Three Presences - Social Presence, Teaching Presence and Cognitive Presence

The webinar on September 11^th had two themes, one of which was 'presence.' This core message takes you on a virtual guide through a Garden of Three Presences for Online Teaching and Learning -- Social Presence, Teaching Presence and Cognitive Presence (Garrison, 2006). This summary defines the three types of presence and then lists tools and behaviors -- for both faculty and students --that support these three types of presence.

But first, a brief segue into how I came to choose the garden metaphor for this summary of the three presences. I was recently reminded of St. Augustine's description of memory as an 'inner chamber, vast and unbounded' into which images are stored and how Augustine also believed that images are not simply stored, but are gathered, acted on, and reordered to be 'ready at hand.' (Tell, 2006)

In many respects Augustine's conceptualization of memory and memory processes is very similar to the constructivists' theories of the benefits of acting on, processing and storing information to make the knowledge our own.

I offer this image of a tour through a garden of three presences to take you on a relaxing and pleasant way of storing, acting upon and remembering these presences. Please enjoy!

The Multicolored Groundcover of Social Presence

As we walk through the Presence Garden, we see a wide array of groundcover awash with a rich variety of tone and color, both bright and muted. This is a metaphor for Social Presence, laying the foundations for connectedness for learning and for community.

What is Social Presence? Social presence is the ability to project oneself socially and affectively in a virtual environment. You achieve social presence by being a real -- three-dimensional -- person to your students. Another way of saying this is that you let yourself be known as a person with a life in addition to your role as a teacher/mentor.

How do you achieve this? What behaviors work?

Social presence is the easiest of the types of presence to achieve. Sharing where you live, your family, your pets and who you are as a person, your likes and dislikes encourages students to share who they are as well. Something as simple as a sharing a picture of your favorite place (My favorite place in the whole world is St. George Island on the Gulf of Mexico.) or whether you stop at Starbucks every morning builds connections to you and your students.

For a community of learners to develop, you also want to encourage your learners to become real to each other, and so designing into your courses ways for them to share more of who they are builds connections and social presence among your learners.

All these connections that we build from social presence sharing lay a foundation upon which trust and commitment to each other can build.

A strong social presence builds a climate of trust and environment of comfort. This foundation makes the learners ready for your Teaching Presence and the Cognitive Presence.

Tools and Behaviors by Faculty and Students for Social Presence

• Introductions in the first week
• A special discussion thread or forum for informal exchanges
• Sharing times
• Willing to think aloud about why you think what you do
• Showing respect and care for others
• Taking advantage of the spiritual foundation and environment of Duquesne as appropriate

The Path-Guiding Bushes of Teaching Presence

As we walk through the garden enjoying the swells of groundcover, we begin to see a whole series of paths lined with small and large bushes. These bushes guide and channel energies, questions and learning processes. These bushes are the metaphor for Teaching Presence.

What is a good definition of Teaching Presence? Simply put, teaching presence is the work of teaching both before and during the course. It includes the designing and developing the course and in directing and supporting the learners during the course delivery. Teaching presence is manifested in the course materials -- in the syllabus, assignments, choice of readings and discussions. Teaching presence is also manifested in everything the faculty member does to guide, support and shape the learners' experiences. Effective teaching presence sets clear expectations and supportive guidance.

The work by Garrison and Anderson and others at the Community of Inquiry offer this more formal definition: Teaching presence is the 'design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educational worthwhile learning outcomes.' (communitiesofinquiry.com/sub/teaching.html)

Tools and Behaviors by Faculty

• Sets clear expectations for students; is specific about how learners are to be 'present'
• Is visibly present in the course site every day if possible; is substantively present at least four times a week.
• Coaches and guides learners to keep pace and think deeply about what they know and why they know it
• Encourages questions regarding activities, assignments, etc.
• Restates assignments, pacing on assignments
• Helps students not to be surprised by course requirements and events
• Uses announcement tools to ensure students are aware of changes
• Uses email for private correspondence and gentle or firm guidance as might be needed

The Open, Tended and Untended Spaces or Jungles of Cognitive Presence

The garden paths lead on and come to spaces of many kinds -- open spaces ready for gentle planting of seeds and small plants; tended spaces with flowers, plants, and bushes carefully organized; and untended wild spaces, almost jungles, filled with untested ideas, unverified meanings and overgrown and hidden biases.

What is Cognitive presence? Here is one way to describe it. Cognitive Presence is the extent to which a group of learners are able to 'construct meaning through sustained communication.' (Garrison, 2006)

This type of presence requires attention and effort and commitment from both the faculty and the learners in a course community. What is achieved with cognitive presence is an understanding on both the intellectual and affective level that the learning activities involve and tap into real meaning structures. This requires knowledge, reflection, discussion and confirming of meaning.

Tools and Behaviors by Faculty and Students

• Faculty sets high expectations for student inquiry and expectations
• Faculty examine student responses and probes, challenges, questions encouraging thought and analysis of ideas and content
• Learners participate thoughtfully in the discussions, responding to content and thoughts and questions from other learners so that a sustained communication occurs.
• Faculty and students strive to ensure that project outcomes are long-lasting and meaningful.

Cognitive presence requires a focus on meaning and not on covering content, so occasionally this may mean that depth and problem solving is favored over concept awareness. Tending the Cognitive Presence section of the garden is not for the faint of heart. It requires time, listening, reflecting and careful responding to encourage sustained conversation.

More on Cognitive presence is in e-coaching tip #36.

Leaving the Garden of Three Presences

As students and faculty complete a course, the natural process of the last week or so is a pruning and focusing time. It is a time to 'fix' one part of the garden and move on, but then return and do another section in another course. Yet all the sections of the garden do flow together and complement and enhance the other.

We could probably work on this summary and improve the metaphors immeasurably, but this is all for now and I welcome shaping ideas!

I hope you have enjoyed this walk through the Garden of Three Presences! And that this sequence of images will make it easier to remember presence.

Reminder -- don't forget the coming webinar on Thursday, October 18^th at 7:00 p.m. Our topic is 'Building Community in Online Courses.'

References

Garrison, D. R. (2006). Online collaboration principles. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 10(1). http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/JALN/v10n1/v10n1_3garrison.asp Accessed October 1, 2007.

Tell, David. Beyond Mnemotechnics: Confession and Memory in Augustine. Philosophy and Rhetoric. Vol. 39, no. 3, 2006. pp. 233-253.

judith@designingforlearning.org
Revised February 11, 2010
Copyright Judith V. Boettcher, 1997-2010