How to Build Online Social Presence: Strategies for Community Building

With an increase in Synchronous online learning, there is a shift in how current teaching practices are impacted and what is important to students and student learning. Synchronous teaching is not taking face-to-face strategies online, instead, it requires intentional design and thoughtful planning. To that end, this paper discusses pedagogical strategies for designing online spaces that create, cultivate and sustain social presence. Literature and research that support the connection between social presence and student learning will be shared, including the presenters' recently published text "Effective Learning Environments in Higher Education Online Settings: Establishing Social Presence." The framework presented in this text separates Social presence into three themes: social climate, membership in a learning community, and students feeling real. In this paper, authors elaborate on how instructors can build community in online courses. [For the full proceedings, see ED652228.]