Zusammenfassung: |
This article is concerned with the role of socioemotional nonverbal cues in distance
education. In a study on the social presence of distance educators mediated through the
presence or absence of speech and a personal view we observed and recorded data from 101
students. Students participated for 9 weeks in an off-campus online seminar on certain
topics of general psychology. Among other aspects we analysed students’ online
activities (e.g. number of logins) and whether their communication style and evaluation of
the online seminar change with varying degrees of the tutor’s social presence.
Altogether, students logged in 3608 times, read 1240 mails, and composed 160 mails. The
communication style observed in the mails as well as in the evaluation of the learning
environment changed with varying degrees of the tutor’s social presence. |
