Social Presence: Being Yourself on Video

I use a lot of video when I'm teaching online. Most of these are short videos that I record on my phone and then upload to YouTube with little to no editing at all. I might trim off the beginning and end of the clip, but that's about it.

Sometimes I stumble over my words. Sometimes I umm and ahhh my way through. But I try not to re-record if I can possibly help it. I figure that in my face-to-face courses I don't get a do-over, and those students get to see me in all of my Porky Pig blathering...so my online students should get the same opportunity. :-) 

Yes, there is the concern that video is a record of my errors, and so there is a little more pressure to get it right the first time. And I should note that I do sometimes trash the video and re-record it if it goes horribly off the rails. But I figure that being a real human being in my videos is more valuable than a slick, over-produced video clip. Video is a great way to infuse more social presence into your online course, that sense of "how 'real' the other person feels to you when communicating online" that I've been talking about in the last few posts on the ol' blog. (See my posts on names, photos, and language usage for more ideas.)

A couple of tips for recording better videos:

• I do usually write a script. Often it's just bullet points, but I do try to think through what I'm going to say before I start the recording.
• I definitely try to keep these videos short. This makes it much more likely that students will actually view them! My general rule of thumb is to try to keep them to 2-3 minutes with a hard upper-limit of not more than 6 minutes. If I need more time than that for a given video, I find the logical breaking points and record multiple shorter videos instead.
• I am mindful of my background. Often I record videos in my office, but I try to use different views. Sometimes I set my phone on my bookshelf, sometimes on the table by the window looking back towards my desk, sometimes on the stool in the middle of the room so I can sit in my overstuffed chair. Closing the blinds if they are behind me is a good idea. Opening the blinds if they are in front of me is also a good idea.
• I try to have a solid place to set my phone when I'm shooting video so I don't make my viewers feel seasick. I picked up a tiny little tripod for my phone for $5 at Walmart. This makes for a more stable shot.
• On the other hand, I sometimes just take my phone in hand and record myself while walking around on campus. This gives a sense of "place" that is bigger than just my office. It takes a little practice to walk around and keep my phone stable, but it probably helps that I have ridiculously long arms, so the focal length from my face to the camera is a bit longer. :-)
• Try to look exactly at the camera when you are talking, but don't just stare. It often helps me to picture a particular student on the other side of the camera, and imagine that I'm talking right to that person as an individual. This helps me to keep "eye contact" without getting creepy about it. It also warms up the way I talk instead of feeling robotic.

Video updates to the class, video explanations of assignments, and even video feedback can be great ways to share with students in your own voice and letting them see your face. I highly recommend that you give this approach a whirl in your own class!

Image by Julia M. Cameron via Pexels

---

(This post is part of a series offering tips on distance teaching. You can read more about this project here: Distance Teaching Tips. You can also read all of the posts in this series here: Distance Teaching Tips Series.)

Social Presence: Watch Your Words

I'm sure it has never happened to you, but I have accidentally offended people via email. It wasn't necessarily the words I used...it was the way I said it. Communicating only via text can be a little tricky, because so much of the non-verbal subtext that we also use to convey meaning gets stripped away. Sometimes we wind up sounding angry (or angrier?) than we might mean to. Sometimes we might sound vacuous or silly. Sometimes we might come across flat, even when we are actually enthusiastic.

We have to watch our words when communicating online...but also how we say them!

In my last few posts I've been talking about social presence in online communication as "how 'real' the other person feels to you when communicating online." (Check out my posts on names and photos for more.) But even in a text-only environment--without graphics and videos and other richer media--you can definitely convey a sense of yourself as a real person. So let's think through a few ideas for how to do this...

I love Brené Brown's adage that "clear is kind." I think that this is a helpful rule for communicating online, but we don't have to be cold to be clear. I try to use a warm, conversational tone in my assignment descriptions as much as possible. Compare these two descriptions:

• You will write a philosophy paper that explains your current philosophy of education, including your view of the purpose of school, the role of the student, the role of the teacher, the purpose of the curriculum, and your approach to classroom management. Your paper will be at least 4 but not more than six pages in length, and you must follow the conventions of standard written English according to APA style.
• In this assignment, I invite you to reflect on your beliefs and how you put them into practice. Write a paper of about five pages to share your current philosophy of education. I want to see your ideas about the purpose of school, the role of the student, the role of the teacher, the purpose of the curriculum, and your approach to classroom management. While I will assess your paper for content, I expect that you'll put your best writing on display, following the conventions of standard written English. As a friendly reminder, in the field of Education we use APA style, and there is an APA reference guide linked below.

How do these feel? The first version is precise, but I think it feels cold and a little uncaring. The second version still conveys the expectations, but in (I hope) a way that feels warmer and more invitational and supportive.

I think using "I" language or "we" language instead of "you" language can really help with conveying care to students. I would encourage you to do this too!

Exclamation points can be an important part of communicating online to show a bit more emotion in your writing. It's certainly possible to overdo this(!!!) but it can help. I also think using italics, underlining, and bold can help to infuse a little more "voice into your writing. I try to avoid ALL CAPS WHENEVER POSSIBLE, because this--by convention--is the equivalent of shouting online. (My mom has a Facebook friend who always types in all caps...and I laugh because this friend actually does have a very loud voice, and it just seems to be her online, text-based communication matching her actual speaking voice.) :-)

And...silly as it might sound...think about using emojis in your writing. Including those little smiley faces like the one I added at the end of the last paragraph can actually make a difference. They help convey a sense of tone that may or may not come through in the words alone.

These are admittedly small things that you can do, but cumulatively they demonstrate more of the idea that you are a real, whole person on the other side of your computer connection. Modeling this sort of use of language for students--and even pointing it out to them!--might be a promising practice for humanizing your online communication. 

Image by Juliana Romão via Unsplash

---

(This post is part of a series offering tips on distance teaching. You can read more about this project here: Distance Teaching Tips. You can also read all of the posts in this series here: Distance Teaching Tips Series.)

Social Presence: Photos, Gifs, and Memes

In my last post, I introduced the concept of Social Presence in online communication as "how 'real' the other person feels to you when communicating online." I suggested that calling on people by name is one way to boost social presence; this is just one simple thing you can do to foster a learning community.

Ready for another easy thing? Think about using images in your course as a way to boost social presence. Photos, animated gifs, and memes can all be tools for increasing that sense that the people with whom you are interacting are real human beings.

Photos

Most of us who are active on social media already know the value of having an avatar photo of some sort, to graphically and visually identify the person with whom you are interacting. And while some folks will use a cartoon character, or a photo of a celebrity, or a logo, or some other representation, a grand majority of people will use a photo of themselves to identify themselves.

Most learning management systems (LMSs) have a feature that allows--or even requires--everyone in the course to have some sort of avatar. This is a simple way to increase social presence: ask students to include a photo of themselves as their avatar. You can almost certainly find a tutorial for how to do this by googling the name of your LMS (e.g., Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, etc.) and adding the search term "profile picture." And, of course, follow the Golden Rule for Distance Teaching: if you ask your students to post a profile picture, post one yourself as well!

Photos can also be a great way to liven up a course announcement: include a photo of yourself, of an object in your office/classroom/campus to illustrate, of your pet (I find students always are happy to see pet photos!), etc. This is some self-disclosure on your part that can model and encourage students to share about themselves as well.

Animated Gifs and Memes

There has actually been some academic research done about the benefits of including animated gifs and memes in your online communications to boost social presence. (Seriously! Check out this, this, this, or this, if you're interested.) But even before I learned about any of this research, I had been using gifs and memes as a way of boosting social presence in my own online courses. And I've found it is something students respond to as well; when I survey students at the end of the course for things they liked/disliked, I have never had a student say they disliked gifs and memes, and I seem to always have a handful of students at least who call this out as something that they enjoyed. So...anecdotal evidence here, for sure, but I don't think it could hurt to try it. :-)

I try to work gifs into my assignment descriptions or announcements. These can be just for fun, or they can be purposeful. For example, when I'm introducing a team project, I might use this classic gif from High School Musical:

Via giphy.com

Or if I'm giving a "great work, everyone!" message in an announcement, it might be a "Give yourself a high five!" with this gif:

Image via giphy.com

Or  maybe you'll make your own gifs with a tool like MakeAGif.com, and you'll end up with something like this:

I made this one a long, long time ago.

Memes...ah, how about memes?

WARNING! MISUSING MEMES IS A GUARANTEED SIGNAL TO YOUR STUDENTS THAT YOU ARE AN OLD.

But I still use memes, even though my teenaged kids tell me I'm hopelessly out of touch with "meme culture." My students generally seem to get what I'm going for--and I admit that I am an old--and I've had a few specifically tell me that they find them hilarious. (Though they might be laughing at me, rather than with me...but I'm okay with that, if it helps to build some social presence in the class!)

What kind of memes do I share? Usually geeky, content-specific memes. For example, when I'm introducing a research project, I might use this one:

This one is all over the web, but I found it here.

Is this a bunch of ridiculousness? Maybe! (Well, not the photos part--that part seems pretty solid.) Are gifs and memes going to win you accolades as teacher of the year? Unlikely. But taking a playful approach to your pedagogy like this might just help to win students over, and it will almost certainly boost the social presence of your online course.

---

(This post is part of a series offering tips on distance teaching. You can read more about this project here: Distance Teaching Tips. You can also read all of the posts in this series here: Distance Teaching Tips Series.)

Social Presence: Names

Want to do just one thing that will almost immediately have an impact on the feeling of connection and community in your online class? Start using students' names.

In the academic study of online learning, we often talk about "social presence" as a key part of developing a community of learners. In a nutshell, social presence is about how "real" the other person feels to you when communicating online.* One simple way to connect with the other person and foster a stronger sense of social presence: use their name.

I know, I know...this might sound ridiculous. And I should caution that it is possible to over-do this. (I mean, you probably don't use their name every time you speak to a person, you know?) But in all seriousness, calling someone by name is a powerful action and we should not minimize the importance of this pedagogical move!

Think about how it feels in a face-to-face classroom when you are the student: being called by name indicates that you are seen and known. (This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how your name is spoken, I suppose!) :-) But the reality is that hearing your own name spoken is a signal that someone else has taken a notice in you, and this can easily convey a sense of connection and belonging that strengthens the community of learners.

Image (modified) by Allie via Unsplash

What does this look like in practice? Here are a few ways I use students names in discussion forums:

• When I'm interacting with students in discussion forums, if it's the first time I'm commenting in response to a person in a given thread I call on them by name. ("Jared, that's a wonderful story and it really illustrates the big idea very well...")
• If I am responding to a question a student raises in the discussion, I reply by name, usually with some word of affirmation. ("Thanks for asking that question, Dawn. Here's what I'm thinking...")
• Later in a discussion thread, if I'm referring back to an earlier comment, I try to always note who brought up an idea by naming that person specifically. ("I appreciated Kristina's comment about this earlier in the thread. Her suggestion reminded me...")

Beyond discussions, here are a couple other ways I try to be very intentional about using students' names:

• When I leave written feedback in response to students' work, I try to use their name at least once in the personalized comments I leave.
• When we use video-based comments (such as with Flipgrid, for example) I try to always respond to the student by name in any comments I leave.

These might seem like small things, but if you're not in the habit of doing this with your online students, I encourage you to give this a try, and see what impact this tiny teaching tweak might have on the classroom community.

---

(This post is part of a series offering tips on distance teaching. You can read more about this project here: Distance Teaching Tips. You can also read all of the posts in this series here: Distance Teaching Tips Series.)

*There is plenty you could read to learn more about social presence; if you'd like a quick look, here's a chapter I co-wrote with a former-professor-turned-professional-colleague, Patrick Lowenthal: Social Presence and Communication Technologies: Tales of Trial and Error. 

Teaching at a Distance: Keeping it Human

I'm thinking a lot about my students right now. I miss them. I've done distance office hours both yesterday and today, and it was so, so good to be able to hear them, see them, and communicate live for a little while, even if at a distance.

I'm grateful for technologies that allows so many different avenues of communication. One of my research interests is social presence. There are multiple different definitions for what "social presence" is all about, but one that I really like is, "the degree to which a person is perceived as a 'real person' in mediated communication" (Gunawardena, 1995).

How can I do this? How can I share a sense of myself as a "real person" in my communication with students? How can they share a sense of themselves as "real" with me and their classmates? There are lots of different ways. Videoconferences are a great way to connect. But lower tech tools--even good ol' email--can also be great ways to connect. How can students perceive me as a real person? The affordances of a particular technology matter, I think. But even more important? My tone, and the way I use the tool to communicate. Basically, I'm working with the belief in mind that my students are real people, whole people, and the way I communicate with them matters.

Social Glue: Celebrating TodaysMeet

Today I deleted a bookmark from my browser that has been there since the fall of 2013. It looked like this:

This was a shortcut to a (semi-)private chatroom hosted by TodaysMeet.com, which I used regularly from 2013 up to the present. But TodaysMeet is no more. If you head to the site, you'll find this message:

TodaysMeet was a communication tool that allowed users to create private (or semi-private) chatrooms that anyone could join if they knew the URL. There are lots of ways such a tool could be used, and many educators used it to get students sharing their best thinking. I used it myself in both online and face-to-face courses from time to time.

Tech Tool: Make Your Own Animated GIFs

I love animated gifs. Sometimes they just hit your funny bone, right? Like this one, for instance:

Even Vader loves pizza. [Scrounged from Smosh.]

So maybe you want to create your own animated gifs? Maybe you could use one for that online course you're teaching add a little interest and humor? Or maybe you just want to try and create the next viral hit?

Reflecting on Social Presence

Those who regularly read my blog know that I am currently in a doctoral program, and I'm conducting my studies at Boise State University in the online Ed.D. program, studying Educational Technology.  Most of our work is asynchronous (we don't all login at the same time to interact), and while it is high-level, interactive, collaborative work, it is online, distance learning, which can be isolating.

But it doesn't have to be.

Since I'm studying online, I don't have the opportunity to have "hallway conversations" with my classmates as you might before or after a face-to-face class. But that doesn't mean we don't still interact outside of the discussion forums and VoiceThreads. In fact, our cohort does a really great job of keeping in touch using tools like Google Hangouts and TodaysMeet and Twitter. How much each of my classmates gets involved in these communication channels varies--not all of us have the same level of wanting to be in touch, I think--but I have personally benefitted greatly through this. I have built real friendships with people scattered across the globe.

If you've never experienced this kind of relationship-building, you might be skeptical about the level of friendship that can actually develop using only online tools. But I recently had an experience that confirmed it for me.

My Adventure in Flipping the Classroom: Middle School Curriculum and Instruction

I'm teaching a course this semester in middle school curriculum and instruction. While I can't choose one course as my "favorite" to teach (that's like choosing between your kids!), I do LOVE to teach this course!

I'm using the flipped classroom model for teaching it, which has been a great learning adventure for me. This means I record lectures for them to view outside of class (along with other readings and preparation work,) and then when we meet together in class we apply the ideas to real situations.

A screengrab from an online lecture I was recording.
Just check out the passion...or craziness...in those eyes...

Improving Online Discussions

In one of my courses this summer, I was assigned to create a tutorial for online instructors on a topic of my choice. I decided to make a tutorial providing advice for how to facilitate online discussions. Discussions can be one of the best parts of an online course, or one of the worst parts, depending on how they are organized, the kinds of prompts the instructors provides, and the way the instructor facilitates the conversation.

I had the following objectives for my presentation:

• Articulate why online discussions can be a benefit in an online course. 
• Develop skills necessary for organizing an online discussion: articulating expectations, facilitating vs. dominating the discussion, and considerations for assessment. 
•  Explain how to prompt students to participate by using engaging questions. 
• Analyze techniques for facilitating a conversation in an online discussion: grouping, "blindfolding," and using the FY3 strategy for responding to posts. 

I wanted to try and create the tutorial entirely on my iPad, and I was able to do so using the following tools: Haiku Deck for creating slides, Playback, for creating the screencast, and a YouTube playlist for presenting the video segments.

The tutorial is a five-segment video that I put into a playlist, so one video segment automatically leads into the next. Check it out!

Cognitive Presence, Social Presence, Teaching Presence

I have taught online for the past three summers,  and this summer it has felt like a welcome respite to take courses online instead of teaching them. It is good for me to be in the student's seat, and to think about online teaching and learning from the learner's perspective. It is interesting for me to be learning about teaching in an online setting. Since I already have some first-hand knowledge--I have taught five or six courses online now--one might think I have expertise in online teaching. And I suppose I do, to a point, but the things I have learned have mostly come through trial and error so far. This course has been a fantastic way to rethink not only what I am doing as an online instructor, but why I am doing it that way.

Specifically, one of the things I have been wondering about is how to build teaching presence in an online course. Since the courses I teach have been mostly asynchronous (we rarely have meetings in which we all are logged in at the same time to share in realtime), it has been a challenge for me to try to replicate what I do in face-to-face courses.

Image by Phil Norton [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]