Social Presence, Synchronous Tool Usage and Learning Performance in the e-Learning Classroom: What is the Bottom Line?

This study aimed to determine the university students rsquo; level of social presence, preferred synchronous learning tool, and learning performance and their differences according to sex, age, year, major, Blackboard experience, and perceived computer literacy. The relationship between students rsquo; social presence, preferred synchronous tool, and learning performance was also determined. The respondents were 29 students enrolled in the ESL online elective class, Global Business Communication, at a university in South Korea. There were two sets of online surveys used in this study. The statistical tools used in this study were the mean, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, MannWhitney Test, and KruskalWallis Test. The results showed that the students maintained a Moderately High level of social presence throughout the duration of the course, chose KakaoTalk as their preferred synchronous learning tool, and concluded the course with an overall average grade, or learning performance level of ldquo;B rdquo;. There was a significant difference regarding the students rsquo; learning performance when they were classified according to Blackboard experience; and no significant relationship existed between the students rsquo; social presence, preferred synchronous tool, and learning performance.