Pre-Proposal
The Online Video Conversation:
Social Presence in the Asynchronous Online Classroom
Introduction
This proposed study will explore the application of the online video conversation (OVC) in the asynchronous online classroom (AOC) as a means of providing a social presence level rarely-achieved in this setting. The OVC–a largely unexplored, multimodal communication genre–refers to asynchronous online video used in an ongoing, conversational manner between two or more individuals. Social presence theory (Short, Williams, and Christie) measures communication media based on the degree of awareness of the other person in a communication interaction. Generally, the higher the social presence level, the better the understanding of both speaker and message. The level is altered with the removal or addition of each communication modality (i.e. speech, non-verbal cues, and immediacy of exchange). For the purposes of this study, the AOC refers to a course delivered solely online without any synchronous component. In this setting, the level of social presence is presumably lower than that experienced in the face-to-face (FtF) classroom, where one can see, hear, and interact with the speaker in real time.
This study seeks to answer the following questions:
- In the asynchronous online classroom, where visual communication modalities (rather than those based on text and audio) are historically fewer, in what ways does student-perceived awareness of the social presence of instructor and classmates differ from that experienced in the FtF setting?
- In the asynchronous online classroom environment, to what extent does the OVC offer some sense of simulation of those communication modalities present in the FtF classroom setting? Where does the OVC fall short? What additional benefits, if any, does it offer?
- What sort of activity and communication occurs in this multimodal OVC environment that affects how students perceive this level of social presence?
- In what ways is interaction affected by the differently-perceived presence? Specifically, what level of gesture, tone, terminology, etc. do students apply in the AOC using this multimodal communication method and what are the characteristics of this method that allow that?
The results of this proposed study will further our understanding of the level of social presence that is experienced through the OVC. The results might also aid in determining the need for further research into the uses and effectiveness of the online video conversation in enhancing communication, comprehension, and retention of information in the online classroom and other settings.
Problem Statement
The ubiquity of online education is well-documented, including discussions on the variety of media that instructors use to communicate with students. Traditional online communication methods, such as email, learning and content management systems, synchronous chat, etc., have students communicating largely through textual means. Any video used for the purpose of communication between the teacher and student has generally been one-sided for assignment or lecture delivery, offering little two-way conversation style communication like that found in the FtF classroom where assignments are discussed or clarified. However, an increasing number of online instructors are using video in a conversational manner to discuss class material, detail assignments, answer questions, and to help students collaborate in groups. Yet, it is unclear how students perceive such online video communication methods and whether they feel it is a desired and useful addition to their distance education experience.
I plan to research the differences between instructor- and student-perceived social presence in the AOC compared with the FtF classroom, including the extent to which participants sense a changed level of social presence, how they feel it affects the classroom experience, and the extent to which the modality of the OVC simulates the social presence of the FtF classroom. If my research reveals a perceived reduction of social presence from the FtF classroom to the AOC and that students and instructors feel it affects their classroom experience, it will show an exigency to reintroduce or simulate that presence in the AOC.
Therefore, it is important to examine methods that can simply and inexpensively enhance social presence in the distance classroom. The OVC is a relatively new communication situation, method, and genre that may offer this benefit. This proposed study seeks to understand how the OVC is used in the AOC and whether it holds something unique enough to alter or add to how we think about online, asynchronous learning and the educational use of video communication.
Online Video
Most free online video tools offer common features, such as free membership, a storage repository for videos to be uploaded or recorded directly, and an option to embed the video on a blog or Web site. While many of these online tools can be used in the same way, they each offer specific features that allow particular uses to emerge for each tool. In this way, the online video communication genre can be categorized in the following manner:
Synchronous Video
This type of video is broadcast in real time (or near real time). It includes IM video conferencing in which two or more participants communicate in a live setting from various locations. It also includes live privately or publically broadcast internet events. Such broadcasts are generally uni-directional in that a viewer cannot communicate with the speaker other than when one can type questions to the orator.
Commercially Hosted
The majority of online video falls under this category. Pre-recorded videos are uploaded to public sites and delivered asynchronously. Such sites usually require free membership and have upload and storage limits. Videos are one-sided in that viewers cannot respond other than textually in a threaded-format.
Individually Hosted
Videos in this category are not unlike those that are commercially hosted. However, no membership or other restrictions exist, since the videos are hosted and posted by an individual on his or her website or blog. Additionally, instructor-posted videos of lectures and class information often fall in this category
Online Video Conversation
This category consists of asynchronous videos, generally hosted on commercial sites, whose content is conversational. In this way, it is similar to the way online text-based discussion boards are used, but the addition of the video element makes it unique to such textual communication methods. Additionally, the nature of its content, genre, and technology lends itself to response more than other asynchronous online video. While no single communication modality of the OVC is particularly unique, it is the way in which its elements are combined that produces a rare communication situation.
This study will examine the features of the OVC, such as the ability to participate in immediate, ongoing, “talking head” conversations that are recorded, archived, and searchable. Additionally, it will include the unique feature that allows viewers to add textual and–more important to this discussion–video comments on a video’s timeline at the point of need (an exact moment in a video).
Because online video conversations are recorded and speakers are not present in the same location at the same time, they cannot offer immediate conversational feedback. Despite this fact, the multimodal nature of online video suggests a relatively high level of social presence due to its ability to capture a speaker’s voice, physical gestures, and appearance. In this way, the online video conversation can be examined as a new communication form, creating a synergy between the synchronous and the asynchronous. It transcends the asynchronous situation, simulating a synchronous environment with the interactive, communicative, social elements of its delivery, while retaining the asynchronous benefit of recollection, the ability to return as often as needed to the artifact for review, and backlooping, the ability to review a section that may have not have been initially understood.
Enabled by current online technologies, this new online communication genre appears to have the potential to address an exigency in asynchronous distance communication that other current technologies do not, including an improvement in participatory interactivity in that the viewer is no longer limited to the more passive role of merely receiving video content, but rather can now participate with other speakers.
Video in Online Education
Online video has existed and been applied in the distance classroom for many years with instructors directing students to watch videos on the web, pre-recording lectures for students to view and download, and sending messages to the class. However, while one can still download or view streaming videos, online video is currently employed in notably different ways than it has been used over the past 15+ years. It is now commonly used as a participatory communication method due to its conversational, immediate nature. There are also similarities between this and other communication forms, such as the natural communication tone of FtF; the distance communication of telephone; and the ability to consider one’s response before posting, as in email or IM. However, the OVC is used unlike any other single form of interpersonal communication in its multimodal merging of audio, video, and text in combination with archivability. In this way, it suggests a potentially new merging of textual and oral communication.
Literature Review
This study will review recent and foundational literature on orality, multimodality, new media and convergence, online and computer mediated communication, classical rhetoric, and technical communication with particular regard to online education. Additionally, the study will draw on certain classic rhetorical concepts and select social, rhetorical and media theories to examine the role of the OVC in the AOC. Additionally, the study will rely on other social, media, and rhetorical theories.
Digital Orality
In Orality and Literacy (1981), Walter J. Ong presents a structure of orality beginning with the earliest form of orality, that of pre-literate cultures: primary orality. Here, the rhetorical setting generally consists of more than a single individual speaking. Rather, the situation is participatory. For example, the ancient Greek agoria encouraged interactive discussion. Similarly, in the FtF classroom setting, students engage in conversation with each other and with the instructor. Such applications of classical rhetoric to current practice are important to this study, since they secure it in long-accepted rhetorical theories. In Ong’s concept of secondary orality, examples of electronic orality, such as radio and television, possess a low level of social presence and lack participatory characteristics; they generally consist of a uni-directional broadcast. This is also true of most online video. While still a form of communication, they do not seek or allow for immediate participation or dialogue; the communicative process stops after the broadcast. In this light, the online video conversation transcends this one-sided form of communication and draws on more social and primary elements of orality than did secondary orality.
Based on Ong’s established theories of orality, the study looks beyond secondary and electronic orality and places the application of this technology in the realm of digital orality, a term I apply to computer-mediated, multimodal communication forms. When digital orality, in the form of the online video conversation, is applied in the asynchronous online classroom, it provides a unique and meaningful way for instructors and students to communicate with each other. This study will consider the place orality has in the digital age, particularly in the asynchronous online setting. Specifically, it will seek to determine how the conventions and techniques of oral communication operate in this specific distance education setting, moving beyond the examination of specific applications and tools and looking also at how distance plays a role in multimodal communicative methods.
Multimodality
Multimodality (Bearne, 2005; Berglund, 2009; Kress, Jewitt, Ogborn, & Charalampos; O’Connail, Whittaker, & Wilbur, 1993) refers to all the means, or modes, we use to form meaning through a certain medium, such as using writing (mode) to communicate through the book (medium). “All media offer specific possibilities to the designer, and to the reader/user in their reading and/or use.” (Kress, et al. 2006). With our ability to communicate using speech, including voice intonation, gesture, and facial expression, FtF human communication is naturally multimodal. Therefore, this is a fitting theory to apply to my research, since the OVC–with its ability to offer both verbal and visual modalities–offers most of the multimodality of FtF communication, yet differs in regard to temporality. Considering most two-way online communication is conducted textually (email, IM, forums, etc.), which has limited modality, it is important to examine what differences participants experience by participating in the OVC.
New Media and Convergence
New media refers simply to innovative and updated transformations of existing media. It is less about being newer than anything than it is about being remediated; that is one media form is reshaped in a new form. “What is new about new media comes from the particular ways in which they refashion older media and the ways in which older media refashion themselves to answer the challenges of new media” (Bolter and Grusin, 15). While a given medium might not change fundamentally with its advancement into the “New,” it is our application of it that changes the medium. It is essential to this study to consider conversations on new media (Bolter & Grusin, 2000; Feenberg, 2002; Jenkins, 2008; Levy, 2001; Manovich, 2002; Postman, 1993; Zappen, 2005), which include the convergence of various existing media to form new examples, since the OVC serves as a defining example of this concept.
Online Communication and Computer Mediated Communication
The essence of this study looks at a particular method of communicating online. So, it is necessary to look to existent scholarship on this topic (Gurak, 2001; Hayles, 1999; Heim, 1999; Marshall McLuhan, 1968; Marshal McLuhan, 1997; Thurlow, Tomic, & Lengel, 2004; Walther, 1996), including what effects communicating in this manner has on the ways we communicate.
Classical Rhetoric
Discussions of communication and rhetoric emerge from Greece around 400 BCE, approximately the same time as the dawn of writing. Early scholars provide us with discussions on the advent of writing and the changes it brought for communication, memory, and thinking. But use of such texts is not limited to antiquity; contemporary scholars have long looked to ancient, or classical, rhetoric to understand, define, and situate discussions on communication. Because much of this study addresses both the intertwining and juxtaposition of oral and written communication, it is important to look to traditional and contemporary scholarship on classical rhetoric (Aristotle & McKeon, 1941; Bizzell & Herzberg, 1990; Cicero & Caplan, 1954; Plato & Rowe, 1986; Welch, 1990).
Technical Communication
As partial completion for a doctoral degree in technical communication and rhetoric, it is important that this study draws on existing scholarship in this field. It will consider in particular relevant research on innovative technologies and technical communication and the internet and education (Doheny-Farina, 1992; Gurak & Duin, 2004; Gurak & Lay, 2002; Johnson-Eilola, 2005; Miller, 1979).
Social Construction of Technology
According to (Pinch & Bijker 1987), innovation is a complex process of co-construction in which technology and users negotiate the meaning of new technological artifacts. So, while new technologies arise relatively frequently, they do not shape human actions; rather, our actions shape the technologies. They are culturally constructed and interpreted, and their use is formed from multiple parties negotiating the meaning through a particular application. This theoretical lens is useful in my research, since the events and technology that brought the OVC do not explain the particular innovation and effect of its application in the AOC. Through my own research, I will examine how an asynchronous online class (social group) may interpret and find mutual meaning in the specific use of the OVC and if class understanding may stabilize into a consistent application of it.
Media Naturalness
This theory, proposed by Ned Kock (2001), is based on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and states that during the majority of human evolution, we communicated FtF and that our biological communication apparatus has been optimized for it. (Kock, 2001, 11-12). Only very late in the evolutionary process did we begin to communicate through any type of written method. In this way, most humans generally prefer communicating FtF, since it is the most natural form; any other method is less natural. “The extent to which a communication medium incorporates actual FtF interaction elements defines its degree of naturalness.” (Kock, 2001). This theory is relevant to my study in that the OVC has participants communicate primarily through visual-verbal means not unlike they would in a FtF setting. The small textual communication element is secondary (there is no platform on which to write if not in a video). By examining the naturalness level inherent to the OVC modalities, I can place this communication genre on naturalness scale and determine why it may be preferred or disliked for use in the asynchronous online classroom.
Transactional Rhetoric
In Rhetoric and Reality (1987), James A. Berlin created a three-part taxonomy of rhetoric theories, based on epistemology. Objective rhetoric asserts that reality is empirically verifiable and in the material world. Subjective rhetoric states that reality is not material, but rather exists within the individual’s perception apprehension, and the writer or speaker is the author, since he or she discovers a subjective reality. Transactional rhetoric contends that reality is a social construct, formed through interaction and discussion within a certain rhetorical situation. The writer or speaker poses a version or reality that is affected by his or her experiences.
This study will apply a social-epistemic transactional theory of rhetoric, which locates reality in the rhetorical situation, contending that language is the foundation of all human experience and that reality is formed from the interactions between individuals within discourse communities. Subjective rhetoric theory is relevant to my study, since much of my data collection and inquiry considers the subjective perception of the individual. However, because I am examining online verbal transactions and discussions–including student’s previous experience with video technology–in a particular rhetorical situation as the setting in which these transactions are perceived by the writer, author, and audience, social-epistemic transactional rhetoric is more pertinent to my study. Additionally, since this study is heavily supported by theories of oral communication, it will apply various elements of classical rhetoric.
Methodology
The nature of this study–examining an online communication method–is one of social acts. Using a social phenomenological inquiry to examine this subject as an intrinsic case study model, this study will critically examine and apply an embedded analysis on the use of the OVC in the AOC to determine the participant-perceived social presence level, the characteristics that lead to that perception, how participants interact through this method, and the features that allow or invoke that interaction. “A phenomenological study describes the meaning of the lived experiences for several individuals about a concept or the phenomenon.” (Creswell,1998). In this type of study, researchers search for the essence of the phenomenon and the meaning of the experience for participants.
This intrinsic case study model, which focuses on one case due to its genuine or distinctive nature, is based on the unique characteristics of this communication form. I will examine the OVC over two semesters in General Principles of Multimedia Writing, an asynchronous online course in which students use the OVC to interact with both the instructor and fellow-classmates. For the purposes of this methodology, the intrinsic case refers to the OVC in a specific rhetorical situation. The embedded analysis, which focuses on a specific aspect of a case, will examine the level of social presence created by the OVC. It will collect information through a series of mixed data gathering methods, including online surveys, direct interviews, and content analysis, which will produce both quantitative and qualitative data.
Student Surveys
I will gather information from student surveys to determine their perception of interpersonal communication via online video, of the importance and existence of social presence in the asynchronous online classroom, and of their experiences with the online video conversation. I leave open the possibility of student interviews, which would take place only after the semester has ended and grades have been submitted.
Instructor Interviews
Using the telephone, Skype, IM, or Viddler, I will conduct interviews with instructors who use similar classroom methods to determine how they use the technology and their perceived benefits of it, perhaps even in the classroom setting. The focus of my analysis of the student and instructor response data will be to reveal perceived social presence, which, in effect constitutes reality for the individual.
Content Analysis
I will perform a content analysis of the collected student video conversations in which they’ve made multiple comments (both textual and visual). Specifically, I will examine, identify, and taxonomize common elements present in each video including: video length (five length categories) to ascertain quick responses as opposed to more prepared orations; speaking style and formality level (interactive vs. oratory) based on tone, language level, and sentence construction to discover the spontaneous versus formalized conversation; response amount and frequency, which is related to conversation thread longevity, to find out the ongoing or one-off nature of the conversations; and gestures used, which is a factor available exclusive to this visual medium and the FtF setting. Whereas the surveys and interviews consider the meaning of the online video conversation experience for the individuals, the content analysis takes a more objective approach to discover the video trends and commonalities and to triangulate the data.
Contribution to the Field
The existent research gap that this study seeks to fill is in examining the OVC as a means to alter the level of participant-perceived social presence in the asynchronous online classroom. Specifically, this study seeks to determine how interpersonal communication occurs in this setting through use of this communication form. While based on technologies and practices that have existed for some time, the convergence of features that form the OVC offer a new means for instructors and students to communicate immediately, personally, and although asynchronously still at the point-of-need using a combination of audio, video, text, and hypertext.
This study will add value to the field of technical communication and rhetoric by ascertaining the effects of this online video conversation feature in regard to filling the gap in social presence that exists between face-to-face instruction and asynchronous online classes. Outcomes of this study will also suggest potential applications of the feature in the classroom to enhance distance learning. Transparency of these effects could reveal new insights into the way we communicate online. By extension, the same principles determined by the use of this method in the classroom could be extrapolated into the workplace in regard to globalization and distance communication.
Limitations and Further Study
This study will not measure the effectiveness of the online video conversation in terms of knowledge transfer, learning outcomes, content comprehension or retention, or whether this virtual communication method improves student grades. Rather, the study will examine the way in which students use the technology (both by assignment and by choice), when they prefer this technology to traditional textual communication, and what student-perceived effects occur. Based on existing media theories that discuss the benefits of live communication, it seeks to show whether this communication mode is beneficial in terms of enhancing the student and instructor feeling of social presence in a way similar to the live setting. In this way, it will provide a foundation for further study that seeks to determine the effectiveness of this conversation method on academic learning outcomes.
This study will discuss one application of this multimodal communication: its use in a specific academic setting. Because it could be easily applied in other academic situations, the workplace, politics, or in social networking, there is clearly much room for additional study. If this study’s outcome shows a high level of user-perceived benefit, it would also serve as a foundation to show the worth of this method in other communicative situations as outlined above.
Dissertation Organization
This proposed study will examine the OVC as a means to increase the student- and instructor-perceived level of social presence in the AOC. To do this, the following chapters are proposed. The first chapter will introduce the study and provide an overview of the dissertation and its purpose and relevance. The second chapter will review the literature and provide a discussion of key theories, terms, and existent research. Chapter 3 will discuss histories and theories of communication, including orality, ancient rhetoric, and online communication. I will then provide a chapter detailing the methodologies used, including specific research questions and methods of inquiry. The next chapter will discuss the results and findings from the data collection surveys, interviews, and content analysis. The final chapter will discuss the study’s implications, conclusion, and potential future research directions.
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