Instructor Presence

Kassinger (2004) defines instructor presence as “the instructor’s interaction and communication style and the frequency of the instructor’s input into the class discussions and communications”. Interactions with faculty have been considered to be one of the most powerful tools for effective student engagement (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005).

Sheridan & Kelly (2010) sought to identify the Ten Most Important Behaviors and Ten Least Important Behaviors that indicate instructor presence from a students’ point of view. Here’s a summary of valued behaviours:

• making course requirements clear and being responsive to students’ needs;
• timeliness of information and feedback;
• letting students know what was expected of them in all aspects of the course, including assignment requirements and due dates.

And what isn’t an indicator of instructor presence?

• synchronous or face-to-face communication

One may expect synchronous or face-to-face communication to be an important behaviour, but this clearly illustrates the complexity of instructor presence!

Drilling down on the aspect of discussion strategies may be helpful to understanding communication. To view a comprehensive compilation of techniques and discussion strategies to ensure instructor presence, visit the following: Instructor presence discussion strategies and Teaching presence (.pdf)

It’s not necessarily the quantity of interactions but the quality of interactions that counts! Occasional interactions specific to the individual student needs, or interactions that have broader intellectual focus and certain interactions that take place beyond formal environments, have proven to be more meaningful and productive than more frequent ones (Kuh & Hu, 2001). Interactions must be beyond the discussion about grades.  The focus must be on sharing of ideas, career development plans and other activities (Coates, 2009).

Here’s some more detail into strategy improvement that may help you gain an edge in engaging students better and for fostering higher valued interactions:

1. Make your presence felt: Making your presence felt by frequent and short online interactions with the students is what we should strive for. However, to make your presence more impactful and conspicuous, you can interact in the form of posting short audio or video messages or announcements. These interactions can be to clarify misunderstandings, summarize the week’s requirements, or to help students prepare for an upcoming assessment. Periodic communication in the form of daily or weekly announcements helps in making the students stay active. You can be present even when you are not. Most LMSs allow you to schedule announcements to be automatically posted. Thus, you can still show your presence and remind the students to stay on task.
2. Provide timely engagement, response, and feedback: Engage extensively for the first 2-3 weeks by being available for longer hours on phone or email, and then scale back a bit. Focus on interactions and building community in the initial weeks and then shift the focus to giving feedback on formative assessments. Timely response and feedback, usually within 24-48 hours can enable you to retain and elevate the engagement levels. A lengthy silence from you often demotivates and discourages students from participating. The feedback can be in the form of written, audio or a video note.
3. Establish a routine: Being active in online discussions is what we have been practicing for long but establishing a regular routine and choosing specific days to respond to discussion boards will make it convenient to you and motivate the students as well. Structuring such discussions also helps in increasing participation among the students as well as with the instructor. E.g. using a Starter-wrapper strategy: assign the role of “starter” to one student who will read ahead to get the discussion started and assign the role of “wrapper” who will summarize the discussion.
4. Provide engagement while grading: Engage the students in the grading process by encouraging discussions on the same. Example: Provide students with examples of what you consider to be an “A” post, a “B” post, a “C” post and so on, and explain in detail why each example merits that grade. You can create those examples yourself or use previous posts from students and encourage students to ask questions and clarify their points on the same.
5. Follow a problem-solving pattern: Encourage the students to follow a pattern of problem-solving which will require your scaffolding at each step. Ask them to start from P1 (Propose, define, and clarify the problem) to P2 (provide solutions for possible answers) to P3 (compare, discuss, and analyze) to P4 (organize and form conclusions). This prevents the students from skipping the discussions and helps them to reach the conclusion with your support and guidance. Encourage them to ask questions at every step to help clear up their doubts. You can even use rewards and strongly motivate them to rethink their work after discussing the same with you.
6. Employ a ‘Goals Contract’: Ask students to submit a Goals Contract at the beginning of the course. It should combine the teacher’s statement of expectations and the goals established by students. The first half of the goals contract can include a set of expectation statements from the teachers, which the students agree to, e.g. “I have read and understood the syllabus.”, “I should post Q&A on the discussion board.” etc. The second part can include two goal statements from students – one thing that they commit to doing to achieve their goals and one challenge that can interfere with their ability to reach the goals. This type of written interaction may give students a sense of ownership and responsibility for planning for their own goals.