Computers and Composition Dec 2021 Open Access

Social presence in online writing instruction: Distinguishing between presence, comfort, attitudes, and learning

Mary K. Stewart

Abstract

As a component of the Community of Inquiry Framework, social presence is typically defined as students “feeling real” enough to interact with and learn from peers online. This article complicates social presence for an online writing instruction (OWI) context, differentiating between social presence, social comfort, attitudes about online learning, and social learning. The study was initially designed to examine graduate students’ perceptions of social presence as an element of online teaching and learning in two sections of an Online Composition Pedagogy course offered in Spring 2020 and Summer 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the project, since students were now learning about hybrid and online pedagogy against the backdrop of their own experiences as emergency remote students and teachers. Analysis of 21 students’ reflections written during the courses indicates that distinguishing between social presence per se and social comfort, attitudes, and learning helps to account for the individual and social contexts of course participants. Ultimately, this article argues that simply inviting students to “feel real” or positioning yourself as a “real” instructor is not sufficient for establishing the types of social interactions that composition studies values.

Journal
Computers and Composition
Published
2021-12-01
DOI
10.1016/j.compcom.2021.102669
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Topics
writing pedagogy graduate education teacher development online writing instruction
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (8)

  1. Borgman et al. (2026)
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  4. Narang (2024)
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  1. Brodeur et al. (2023)
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  2. Reid (2022)
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CrossRef global citation count: 12 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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