A study of social presence in blended social work education

Professor Walter LaMendola, PhD

University of Denver

Council On Social Work Education (USA)

• focus on e-learning & practice

• a special national project

• a subject of significance

to the US social work profession

Components of Our Project

• Comparing different forms of social work practice class delivery

• Faculty development process

• Organizational requirements for social work e-learning programming

• Measures of student information literacy

• Measures of student learning outcomes

Presentation Today

• Introduce conceptual model

• Examine our study of social work e-learning in terms of– the development of social presence– community of inquiry– and communities of practice related to the

student's field experience.

• Present preliminary data

Elements of an Educational Experience, Figure 1 from L. Rourke, et. al. (2001)Assessing Social Presence In Asynchronous Text-based Computer Conferencing,JDE.

Intersection of Community of Inquiry and Practice

• Community of Inquiry: Critical thought about practice takes place

• Community of Practice: Human values and ethics in action situate theory

Community Community

of of

Inquiry Practice

Stephen Powell (2007)

Practical learning

From: Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T. (2004) e-Learning in the 21st Century, p 57.

Communities of Practice

Groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis

From: Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002) Cultivating Communities of Practice, p. 4

From Wenger (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning as a social system

Practices Learning

From Andrew Cox (2005) What are communities of Learning? Journal of Information Science 31,6, p 529

Practical learning pre-senses

From: Garrison, D.R. (2006) ONLINE COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY REVIEW: SOCIAL, COGNITIVE, AND TEACHING PRESENCE ISSUES DRAFT

Community*

Range Mean Median S.D.All participants (N = 89)Connectedness 28 26.71 28 7.029Learning 31 29.84 31 6.765Community 56 56.55 58 12.681

*As measured by the Rovai Classroom Community Scale (2002)

Community /Social Sense

• Classroom experience demands reflection and reflexivity, which is

• Based on social and intellectual needs and interactions of practitioners and students, who are

• An embodied practice community that situate shared values and ethics

Social Presence

• Community is emotive; affective bonding (Etzioni)

• A sense of “being there”, being situated, embodied

• Forms social identity

• A social context that includes cues, non-verbal expressions, movements

Community is social

Creating Social Presence

• How do we vary social presence in social work education to support practitioner development?

Opportunities of self disclosureSpontaneity and humor

Creating aweExpressing emotionsForms of discussion

• Who are our community members becoming; how are their practice identities formed? Field Integration Seminar included

Measuring Social Presence

• Analysis of classroom discussions– Coding for social presence (Garrison et al)

• Richardson & Swan (2003) measure

• Short, Christie, & Williams (1976) measure

• Student and faculty interviews

Social Presence

– Short et al (1976)– Studies have shown it to be robust in

measuring social presence (Biacco et al 2004)

– Semantic differential– Warm, Sensitive, Large, Beautiful, Personal,

Colorful, Open, Active, Sociable

Social Presence

Mean

Face to face 5.34

Blended 4.32

Blended

Field 5.43

Preliminary discussion analysis

• Blended field more comments by students

• Blended field lengthier comments by students

• Students comments affective

Sample of Qualitative Results

• What is their perception of their learning?– “The field experience was the most beneficial to me ...having

other students share their experience...The field instructor had a lot of experience that she was able to share with us. It is hard to pass up discussions... I do not think a student can get much out of reading without experience and discussion with others... Forming a sense of community, I learn better through experiential learning.”

• Which aspects were most effective for facilitating social presence?

– “The field experience was the most beneficial, because it forced me to get out and experience issues that I hadn't before... I haven't taken the time to interact as much as I would like to but I know that people would've been available for more interaction if I'd taken the effort.

Possible future considerations

• More time in field based learning centers

• More student use of technology, multimedia to communicate experience and practical learning

• More co-teaching with field supervisors, using video conferencing

• Courses offered from the field site