Humanizing and Establishing Presence in an Online Course: The Role of Introductory Videos in Distance Learning

Some faculty may find it difficult, if not impossible, to provide a similar classroom experience online as is provided typically in a face to face class. Faculty members can find it even more difficult to establish an instructional relationship with students in an online course as they do in a face-to-face course. Online learning is known to be more solitary and students report that they feel somewhat disconnected from the class when they take a course online. The challenge in designing online courses is for faculty members to establish their teaching presence by humanizing the online classroom experience for their students. The authors use the community of inquiry model developed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) to examine the attributes of teaching presence in an online course. This study evaluates students\u27 perceptions relating to the significance of producing a video for an online course that introduces the instructor to students and see if a specific introductory video will help to establish the instructor\u27s teaching presence for the students