and individual pacing, is often perceived and experienced as a lonely way to learn. It is likely that the implicit requirement for self motivation reduces accessibility to many students who have little exposure to, or sufficient experience with, programming that is not structured and orchestrated by a live (and often face-to-face) teacher. This challenge - to permit maximum student freedom, while supporting opportunity for community building and mutual individual support in cost effective ways - is perhaps the greatest challenge (and opportunity) facing the distance education community
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social presence in not only setting the educational climate but also in supporting discourse and creating the educational experience. We defined social presence as 'the ability of learners to project themselves socially and affectively into a community of inquiry' (Rourke, Anderson, Archer, & Garrison, 1999
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I am a graduate student at California State East Bay for a Masters in Education, Online Training and Learning. My focus is in creating a design model for the integration of Social Software and PLE into a LMS for online, self-paced, open, informal courses.