Open AccessTeaching Presence in Online Courses: Similar Perceptions but Different Experiences from Multiple Instructor Perspectives
Author(s) -
Murat Turk,
Ali Ceyhun Müftüoğlu,
Sinem Toraman
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
online learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.182
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 2472-5749
pISSN - 2472-5730
DOI - 10.24059/olj.v25i4.2885
Subject(s) - online teaching , perception , online learning , online course , qualitative research , psychology , teaching method , quality (philosophy) , medical education , mathematics education , pedagogy , computer science , multimedia , sociology , medicine , social science , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience
Online course instructors’ perceptions and perspectives regarding their teaching presence as a key presence in online learning environments significantly influence, if not determine, their online teaching practices, which in turn influence the quality of online students’ learning experiences. Although gaining deeper insights into online course instructors’ perceptions and experiences of teaching presence is quite important and valuable for online education, there is still limited qualitative inquiry into this critical presence across diverse online teaching contexts. The purpose in this qualitative, multiple case study was to explore and understand online course instructors’ perceptions and experiences regarding their own presence in their online courses. We explored the perceptions and experiences of eight course instructors teaching undergraduate and graduate-level online courses at a midwestern U.S. college. Our findings indicated that teaching presence was uniformly considered important and necessary by the instructors although their applications and priorities regarding their teaching presence varied. We discussed our themes that emerged from our interview data and offered several theoretical and practical implications regarding teaching presence in online learning environments.