Investigating the Enactment of Social Presence in Blended Adult Education

Background: While open-cohort blended education programmes allow for accessible and flexible study trajectories, they may present social challenges to learners. Social presence is a possible a way of enhancing adult learners' success. It can lead to an increased perception of community, which may result in lower rates of dropping out. Purpose: This study investigates how social presence may be enacted in blended adult education programmes with open cohorts. The paper reports on the first phase of a design-based research study focused on programme-level strategies to establish social presence. This includes three distinct phases: (1) a contextual analysis and jointly agreed problem setting; (2) a literature review to identify and develop social presence strategies, grounded in theory; and (3) a qualitative study to scrutinise the perceptions of adult learners and programme coordinators regarding the embedding of the social presence strategies in the ecological setting. Method: Based on a review of the literature that addressed the strategies to enact facets of social presence, three intervention scenarios for practice were elaborated. These were deliberately specified at the programme level -- hence encompassing multiple separate courses. Each intervention scenario proposed activities carried out by particular actors, at particular time points during a programme, by means of a certain medium and targeting a certain group size. Each intervention scenario was systematically assessed by means of semi-structured interviews with adult learners and programme coordinators, using an approach based on Kano matrices. Findings: The analysis indicated that learners and programme coordinators were not in favour of a series of programme-wide interventions which lead to enactment of social presence. However, the study also showed they were, though, in favour of shared course-related experiences. Although there were contradictory perceptions among learners and staff, the allocation of time and the compulsory nature of social presence activities seemed to be decisive factors. Conclusions: This study highlights that it is crucial to assess the perceptions of the full range of stakeholders prior to an intervention, in order to establish shared priorities.