Exploring Social Presence in Communities of Practice Within a Hybrid Learning Environment: A Longitudinal Examination of Two Case Studies Within the School Technology Leadership Graduate-level Certificate Program

The results indicated that the social presences coding data did not, in itself, completely define social presence. Social presence, instead, consists of five integrated, overlapping elements: affective investment, cohesiveness, interaction level, knowledge and experience, and instructor involvement. The dissertation provides a revised definition of social presence and a Social Presence Model to help us better understand social presence. The new definition and model can serve as a heuristic to help instructors and students determine their responsibilities for nurturing social presence.