Exploring Social Presence in Online Forums among Distance Learners

This qualitative study explored the manifestation of social presence in online forums among the distance learners. Five learners who enrolled in the distance-learning programme in one of Malaysia’s public universities were involved in this study. Data were collected from the learners’ responses in the online forums and were analysed based on the Rourke et al. (2001) measurement of social presence, which comprises affective responses, interactive responses and cohesive responses. Document analysis revealed that interactive and cohesive responses were the most represented; no affective responses were found. This study suggests that the use of member profiles would help learners to get to know one another better and that instructors should play a significant role in establishing and maintaining the manifestation of social presence in distance learning environments. Further research needs to be conducted to identify the ways in which enhancing social presence could ensure a meaningful learning experience.