- awareness and attention are not the same
- Students may be aware of content but not pay attention to it
- Students who pay attention to content should perceive a higher degree of social presence



Attention as a student factor

- Uncertainty of how to navigate a website decreases activity. 
- Online users seek the reduction of uncertainty 
- Want a website to be controllable, responsive, and synchronic (Cui, Wang, an&d Xu, 2010)
- Perceived control correlates with available user information


Perceived Control as a student factor 

- User feedback in the online community and responsiveness of website managers
- Responsiveness is positively related to ease of use (Green and Pearson, 2011)
- Online information should be timely and valuable. Responsiveness ~ timeliness.
- The instructor’s method of online communication affects the student’s perception of social presence (Borup, West, Thomas, and Graham, 2014).
- Social networks are an example of the positive influence of responsiveness on users


Perceived responsiveness as a student factor 

- Concurrent timing of information exchange
- Experienced in face-to-face communication
- Longer download times and computer delays are examples of asynchronicity - halts progress


Perceived synchronicity as a student factor 

- Attention
- Perceived control
- Perceived responsiveness
- Perceived synchronicity


University of California, Davis

- Instructor factors: self-presentation, extraversion
- Student factors: attention, perceived control, perceived responsiveness, perceived synchronicity 
- Website factors: media richness


Key Antecedents Influencing Social presence in MOOCs 


Imlawi, J. M. (2018). Social Presence Antecedents and Consequences in Massive Open Online Courses. International Business Research (Toronto), 11(4), 32. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v11n4p32 

Social Presence Antecedents and Consequences in Massive Open Online Courses

Self-presentation:
- Online identity expression (avatars, signatures, personal pictures)
        - Use of these artifacts influences the user’s sense of social presence (Shen, 2009) 
- Self-disclosure positively impacts user engagement 

Extroversion:
- Extroverted personalities can be displayed through text, animation, and voice. 
- Human warmth and sociability affect social presence (Short et al., 1976)
- Extroversion is more socially perceived by students


Key antecedents: Instructor Factors

Media richness:
  - Rich media channels are those that transmit audio, video, or two-way communication
  - Complex information (like content in MOOCs) should be communicated visually
  - Interaction types ranked by their level of perceived "richness" (most to least):
     1. face-to-face
     2. video
     3. audio
     4. text


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