Fostering presence and
interaction in online teaching

An Ignatian approach to online
education fosters
student- centerdness,
interaction, and
reflection

Effective online teaching fosters three types
of presence: social, teaching, cognitive

Social presence
Social presence is the ability of learners and instructors to
project themselves socially and emotionally as 'real' people
(i.e., their full personality)
Social presence is the ability to present oneself socially
and affectively in a virtual environment.

Teaching presence
Teaching presence is the instructor's virtual representation
of him/herself as a teacher, manifested in course materials,
such as the syllabus and assignments, as well as in
structural choices, such as the selection of readings, the
presentation and ordering of content, and the management
of discussions.

Cognitive presence
Cognitive presence is the extent to which learners are able
to reflect, think critically and solve meaningful problems.
To achieve cognitive presence, an online instructor must
integrate student-centered instructional strategies that help
students construct their knowledge through reflection,
collaboration, and problem solving

Presence and types of interaction
Student-Content
Student-Student Interaction
Interaction
Student-Teacher
Interaction

Student-teacher interaction
Activities for student-instructor interaction might include:
• Instructor feedback on assignments/projects
• Virtual office hours
• Meetings with small groups/team
• Asynchronous discussion board exchanges moderated by
the instructor.
• Synchronous discussions moderated by the instructor

Student-teacher interaction: samples
Video introduction
Response to student introductions
Voicethread response to student

student-student interaction
Activities for student-student interaction might include:
• student introductions
• informal conversation (the water cooler)
• collaborative activities such as group discussions, small-
group projects, group problem-solving assignments, or
peer critiques.
• student-student feedback

Student-student interaction:
student blog

Student-student interaction:
Googledocs

Student-student interaction:
webconferencing

Student-content interaction
Activities for student-content interaction might include :
• Reading from a text, article
• Web-based resource
• Completion of an activity or online exercise
• Student-generated content

Student-content interaction:
resource catalogue

Student-content interaction:
Student-generated wiki

Student-content interaction:
Voicethread
Sample Voicethread (NHACC)

Building presence and
interaction and conveys an
Ignatian philosphy of online
education and reflects
established best practices in
online teaching & learning