The importance of presence offline & online in higher education — from forbes.com by Martin Krislov
Excerpt:
But how can we maintain [human interaction] in the era of online instruction?
That question, it turns out, is a pressing one for distance-education professionals. And the answer, they say, is what the digital world calls “presence.”
Presence means, essentially, being there. It’s something that happens naturally in physical classrooms. But in online education, instructors have to work to create it. Poorly constructed online courses can feel cold and impersonal; online faculty can feel distant. But in a well-designed course, where faculty work to be present, students can thrive. Studies have shown that creating strong presence and engagement in an online class—mimicking that personal connection Gabelli and I so value—improves academic outcomes and student experience.