Research
overview
I’m a Doctoral Candidate in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric program at Texas Tech University. In general, my dissertation research deals with the way we can communicate online through the use of asynchronous video. Specifically, I am looking at the application of this communication method in the asynchronous online classroom regarding the ways in which students and instructors communicate with and sense each other, how interacting in this manner compares to face-to-face communication (benefits, limitations, etc.), whether it might be more or less useful in certain types of classes, and whether it offers any instructional advantage.
committee
Committee Chair: Dr. Rich Rice
Committee Member: Dr. Craig Baehr
Committee Member: Dr. Fred Kemp
dissertation title
Social Presence in the Asynchronous Online Classroom: The Online Video Conversation
abstract
This study explores the application of the online video conversation (OVC) in the asynchronous online classroom (AOC) to determine its effect on the participant-perceived social presence level in this setting. The OVC–a relatively unexplored, multimodal communication genre–refers to the use of asynchronous online video in an ongoing, conversational manner between two or more individuals. For the purposes of this study, the AOC refers to a course delivered solely online without any synchronous component, such as FtF meetings, live textual chat sessions, or real-time audio/video Skype sessions. 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). Following this theory, the level of social presence in the AOC setting 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. However, this study will examine the actual application of this communication method to ascertain the certainty of such a supposition and to identify what advantages and disadvantages it might provide to online students and instructors.
research questions
Given a reduced or altered level of some communication factor in the transfer from the FtF to the distance classroom, this study seeks to determine the extent to which students and instructors sense a changed level of social presence and how they feel it affects the classroom experience. If this research reveals a perceived reduction of social presence, it will show an exigency to reintroduce or simulate it in specific online classroom settings in order to provide more effective knowledge transfer and improved learning, a task achieved by maintaining and prolonging student motivation and interest, while enhancing comprehension and retention of the material. This proposed research focuses on four questions related to the use of the OVC in the AOC.
First, given the suggested problem of the loss, to varying degrees, of something (richness, synchronicity, naturalness, modalities, social presence, etc.) with any communication method other than FtF, in the asynchronous online classroom, where visual communication modalities (rather than those based largely on text or audio) are historically used less often, in what ways does student- and instructor-perceived awareness of the social presence of each other differ from that experienced in the FtF setting?
In the asynchronous online classroom environment, to what extent does the OVC offer some sense of beneficial simulation or extension of any FtF communication modalities or features, such as immediacy, that may be lost or lessened in the transfer of instruction to the online environment, and conversely, what limitations exist with applying the OVC in this manner?
In what specific rhetorical and instructional situation within the asynchronous online classroom–that is what kinds of classroom activity, learning, communication, and content delivery–would the application of the OVC be most fitting and effective in contributing to and enhancing the learning experience, and in what situation would it be lacking?
Finally, given that the majority of both synchronous and asynchronous online higher education employs largely non-video forms of communication, what, if any, instructional advantages and disadvantages does using the OVC in the AOC offer?