How do we establish Social Presence within Online Mathematics Courses

Social Presence is a concept that is very important with students in the online environment. In learning mathematics online, social presence is a crucial component of learning online. Rovai (2001) presents a model of community that suggests that social presence, student-instructor ratio, transactional distance, instructor immediacy, lurking, social equality, collaborative learning, group facilitation, and self-directed learning all have an impact on the sense of community within online environments. Overall, social presence can encourage students to interact in class, complete their course assignments, and to complete the course successfully