Establishing Instructor Presence-2

When a course moves to an online or blended/hybrid format, one key aspect of promoting student engagement and success is establishing a sense of instructor presence in the course. While this is important in all types of learning modalities, establishing instructor presence in an online format presents its own challenges due to the asynchronous nature of online.

One framework that is commonly used to assist with this is the Community of Inquiry (Col) framework Links to an external site.. Instructor, or teaching presence, is one of three elements in the framework (social, cognitive, and teaching presence) needed to create a meaningful learning experience:

Teaching Presence is the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001 Links to an external site.).

There are several strategies that you can use to create a sense of instructor presence in your course:

  • Sending out an introduction email and announcement introducing yourself to your students. Consider making an introductions video or audio recording to further personalize your greeting.
  • Including a biography of yourself for your students, which will further help humanize the online course.
  • Include an "Introductions" type activity in the course, and making sure to personally respond to each student.
  • Participating in the discussions by asking guiding questions to help continue the conversations.
  • Providing detailed feedback to students, and reaching out to those who are struggling directly.
  • Use the announcements forum to post weekly recaps of what was learned in the module, making sure to include points students made in discussions and assignments.

Additional Resources

Tools for Facilitation