contemplating digital orality

dissertation title

The Online Video Conversation: Social Presence in the Asynchronous Classroom

abstract

This proposed study will explore the application of the online video conversation (OVC), a largely unexplored, multimodal communication genre , in the asynchronous online classroom (AOC), as a means of providing a social presence level rarely-achieved in this setting. The OVC refers to asynchronous online video used in an ongoing, conversational manner between two or more individuals. Developed by John Short, Ederyn Williams, and Bruce Christie in 1976, social presence theory measures communication media based on the degree of awareness of the other person in a communication interaction. In most cases, 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, such as speech, non-verbal cues, and immediacy of exchange or feedback. 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.

research questions

This study seeks to answer the following questions:

1. In the asynchronous online classroom, where visual communication modalities (as opposed to 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?
2. 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?
3. What sort of activity and communication occurs in this multimodal OVC environment that affects how students perceive this level of social presence?
4. 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?

committee

Committee Chair: Dr. Rich Rice
Committee Member: Dr. Craig Baehr
Committee Member: Dr. Fred Kemp

tentative timeline