For an online learning environment, the emphasis shifts from preparing class sessions to preparing learning modules with specific learning goals, reading assignments, brief instructional materials, learning activities, discussion board posting requirements, assessment procedures, etc. While you design the modules for your course, you should regularly ask:
What do I want students to learn in this module?
How will students demonstrate their learning of the materials in this module?
What assignments or learning activities will support the learning for this module?
By asking yourself these questions while designing modules, you will support student learning and will establish your teaching presence in the design of the course.
Diane Gusa on 25 Jun 12Social presence is influenced by the intimacy (interpersonal vs.mediated) and immediacy (asynchronous vs. synchronous) of themedium, and can be expected to be lower for mediated (e.g., telephone conversation) than interpersonal (e.g., face-to-face discussion) and for asynchronous (e.g., e-mail) than synchronous (e.g., live chat) communications. The higher the social presence, the larger the social influence that the communication partners have on each other's behavior. Closely related to the idea of social presence is the concept of media richness. Media richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1986) is based on the assumption that the goal of any communication is the resolution of ambiguity and the reduction of uncertainty. It states that media differ in the degree of richness they possess--that is, the amount of information they allow to be transmitted in a given time interval--and that therefore some media are more effective than others in resolving ambiguity and uncertainty. Applied to the context of Social Media, we assume that a first classification can be made based on the richness of the medium and the degree of social presence it allows. With respect to the social
