Table 1 Categories and indicators of social presence
Categories | Indicators | Definition | Example from interactions |
|---|---|---|---|
Affective | Expression of emotions | Conventional or unconventional expressions of emotion, including repetitious punctuation, conspicuous capitalization, emoticons, emoji?, and stickers | “Hahahaha [ThumbsUp]a so this way does work.” |
Use of humor | Teasing, cajoling, irony, understatements, and sarcasm | “Are you serious that your parents will beat you? I will tell your mom about that!” | |
Self-disclosure | Presentation of details of life outside class or expresses vulnerability | “I was working part time in a center that was providing corporate training.” | |
Interactive | Continue an idea | Replying to a previous thread rather than starting a new one, using “Reply” in the forum and “@” in MIM (software dependent) | “@Sara (pseudo), Just got an idea after reading your reply.” |
Asking questions | Asking questions of other students or the moderator | “Were you the only one responsible for the course?” | |
Complimenting, expressing appreciation | Complimenting others or contents of others’ messages | “Your sharing is interesting!” | |
Expressing agreement | Expressing agreement with others or about the content of others’ messages | “I agree with you.” | |
Cohesive | Vocatives | Addressing or referring to participants by name | “Hi Michael, I agree with you.” |
Addresses or refers to the group using inclusive pronouns | Addressing the group as we, us, our, and group or other implicit ways | “I was really happy to meet everyone last evening.” | |
Phatics | Communication that serves a social function: greetings and closures | “I was really happy to meet everyone last evening.” | |
Providing support | Support provided by either students or the instructor to others in the group | “This research finding provides a hint to your question.” |