Improving Students’ Synchronous Online Interactions by Enhancing Their Social Presence in a Blended Learning Course of English for Engineers : a Case Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT: With the ongoing development of online education and online learning environments, student-to-student and student-to-teacher interactions are being affected. Therefore, online learning environments are often criticized for being impersonal or lacking social presence, then teachers should find a way to trigger interactions so that it positively affects learning in online courses. The purpose of this study was to explore the benefits, withdraws or other features of enhancing the social presence in a blended learning course implemented in the language learning program of an Engineering faculty in an effort to improve students’ synchronous interactions. I applied an intervention in which I enhanced the social presence of the class in order that students could take full advantage of the English course interacting more and succeed in their second language learning process. This intervention had a technological component and a focus on the concept of social presence from the Community of Inquiry framework (CoI). This investigation was a single case study framed by qualitative research and implemented with a group of 14 students from a public university in Medellin, Colombia. I focused on a blended English course that the university offers, and I gathered data using a needs analysis survey, a focus group, a personal diary and a third person opinion. Results showed that enhancing the social presence within a course from the English for engineers’ program promoted interactions in the synchronous class and positively impacted students’ learning experiences in the blended environment. Students recognized they felt not only more confident to participate as a community but also freely expressed themselves during the classes, resulting in better learning experiences in general for them and their peers. It can also be stated that strengthening the social presence in my class benefited students’ academic performance.