Engaging university students in online learning: a regional comparative study from the perspective of social presence theory

This study investigates the factors influencing university students' online learning engagement from three distinct aspects, namely, behavioural, cognitive and emotional engagement. A comparison is drawn from university students in Asia who embraced online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey was conducted on 495 university students in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Malaysia during the surge of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, which was considered more infectious but less deadly than previous variants. A consistent positive relationship between Satisfaction and Academic Performance is found in all the regions. Malaysia presents a unique situation as compared to Mainland China and Hong Kong whereby no association was found between Social Context and Online communication towards Student Engagement. The novelty of this study is attributed to the integration of Social Presence Theory in Student Engagement through the nature of online learning as a coping strategy to halt the spread of COVID-19 during the Omicron variant surge. © 2023, Beijing Normal University.

Optimizing Presence Sensing Lighting for Energy Efficiency and User Behavioral Needs in Small Swedish Homes

A hybrid workstyle is becoming more common post-COVID-19, and longer occupancy hours at home are increasing household electricity consumption. Small homes are regarded as a potential for improving energy efficiency in the residential sector, and a home consists of mixed-function spaces with dynamic occupancy behaviors. These underpin the opportunity to optimize presence sensing lighting in small homes for energy efficiency and user-behavioral needs. A comprehensive overview of presence sensing approaches, comparing four types of non-wearable sensors connected to home lighting is made. A bibliometric mapping of the reviewed literature visually reinforces a significant research gap that presence sensing studies were not connected to home lighting but inclined toward the commercial and institutional context. Next, a non-exhaustive example of commercially available presence sensing products applicable to residential lighting for small homes is analyzed, and their general characteristics and technologies are synthesized. The literature and product overview identified five significant product knowledge gaps. Incorporating the gathered information leads to the proposal of a conceptual flexible radar-based sensor (prototype design), addressing a wish list with three important criteria to optimize future presence sensing lighting in a mixed-function small home. Future radar sensing studies are expected to develop an anticipatory lighting system that processes real-time multi-user vital signals for smarter localized and personalized lighting options for (small) living environments.

Regarding the question of presence in online education: A performative pedagogical perspective

In response to the interruption of all levels of education following COVID-19, we start by underlining the difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. Next, we inquire into the question of presence in physical and virtual classrooms, and offer a discussion of presence as "being-here-now,” a "movement toward becoming,” and as gelassenheit or "releasement toward things.” We highlight the materiality of communication, and the performative production and transformation of the classroom space. Finally, we illustrate how performative writing enhances the sense of being-here-now, and facilitates the co-inhabiting of online learning spaces that lack co-presence of bodies in the same physical environment.

Nurturing Social Presence in a Blended Learning Environment

The ambition of this development study is to explore the opportunity to put the knowledge gained during the COVID-19 pandemic into practice in a blended, post-COVID, learning environment. The focus is to explore how a combination of digital and face-to-face activities may allow for fostering social presence among undergraduate students. The Social Presence model and the five elements of Affective Association, Community of Cohesion, Instructor Investment, Interaction Intensity, and Knowledge and Experience, encompass the theoretical framework of the study. The contextual setting is the first course of The Marketing Programme at Linnaeus University in Sweden, a bachelor program with a 50% Swedish intake and 50% international intake. Given the diverse background of the students in this course, challenges are typically encountered in relation to community building. Empirical data was collected during the fall of 2022 among the enrolled students using an online questionnaire. While the results from this study should be seen as preliminary, they offer an inspiring glimpse of how to nurture social presence in a blended learning environment. Copyright © 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Perceptions of university students regarding engagement in synchronous discussions involving teamwork during the COVID-19 pandemic

Teamwork is usually a component of the learning assessment framework of online courses, and the timely sharing of information and feedback through synchronous communication is beneficial for team-based assignments. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, university students did not always actively engage in virtual teamwork in online environments because they were learning from home and were subject to the effect of disruptions at home. This study explored the perceptions of university students who engaged in synchronous discussions involving teamwork during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 25 Taiwanese university students. Through qualitative methods that incorporated individual interviews and a content analysis, six content concepts were established. Afterward, relational content analysis was conducted. This study revealed that the students benefited from visible synchronous discussions in terms of inquiry dialogue, project creation, and learning satisfaction. Notably, the interviewees mostly did not switch on their webcams but recognized that webcam use can benefit discussions. The participants' decision to switch on/off their webcams was primarily influenced by their perception of the importance of a given project than by their privacy concerns. Moreover, when home-based leaning was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, group leaders encountered an obstruction when they were guiding their group members to engage in teamwork involving physical tasks. Future studies should explore how members should be guided to engage in teamwork involving physical tasks during synchronous discussions.

Achieving co-presence when together and apart: Hybrid engagements and multi-modal collaborative research with urban indigenous youth

This article reflects on collaborative research carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic involving indigenous youth co-investigators from different urban settings in Bolivia and a UK- and Bolivia-based research coordination team. Unlike previous studies that highlight the potential of generating a shared co-presence via virtual engagements and digital methods when face-to-face interactions seem less desirable, this article offers a more cautious account. We question the existence of a shared co-presence and, instead, posit co-presence as fragmented and not necessarily mutual, requiring careful engagement with power imbalances, distinct socio-economic and space-time positionings, and diverse priorities around knowledge generation among team members. These considerations led us to iteratively configure a hybrid research approach that combines synchronous and asynchronous virtual and face-to-face interactions with multi-modal methods. We demonstrate how this approach enabled us to generate a sense of co-presence in a context where collaborator access to a shared space-time was limited, differentiated, or displaced. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Qualitative Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Social presence, synchrony, and personalization: challenges of online education in the post-pandemic university

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a forced transition to the virtuality of face-to-face training proposals from universities. But what happened in those higher education careers that already had a distance modality? What lessons learned does the pandemic leave in the subjects that have already been developed online, mediated by digital technologies? In search of answers to these questions, a paradigmatic case study was completed: a distance career with a helping profile, accredited by a private Argentine university2. The research covered two phases: exploration and description, arriving at a categorization that dialogues with con-cepts of the theoretical framework. The data obtained reveals the installation of videoconference as a common practice in traditionally asynchronous spaces. The conclusions highlight the relationship of the categories: social presence and per-sonalization, with the situation of synchrony associated with presence. Everything seems to indicate that the return to normality does not constitute a return to the previous situation, but rather an opening to a transformative process that conso-lidates synchrony as a common practice in distance learning modality, and that causes -in terms of De Alba (2021)- a structural dislocation whose derivations must be mapped to broaden the understanding of the phenomenon.

Who Needs Zoom? Female Arab Students' Perceptions of Face-to-Face Learning and Learning on Zoom

Zoom has been adopted by Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education as an alternative to face-to-face teaching/learning since the outset of COVID-19. The study explores female students' perceptions of social presence, social interaction, and satisfaction in Zoom learning compared to face-to-face learning, along with the overall factors shaping their perceptions. All 228 participants were female students who learned via Zoom during the pandemic for at least one semester before switching back to face-to-face learning. A mixed-method design was used in the study, which included a questionnaire to learn about students' perceptions and semi-structured interviews to gain in-depth understanding of the factors affecting their attitudes. The results indicate that students' perceptions of social presence, social interaction, and satisfaction tended to be higher for face-to-face learning than Zoom learning. They also suggest a significant relationship between the students' satisfaction and their perceptions of social presence and interaction. Furthermore, the students' degrees and majors seem to have had a significant bearing on their level of satisfaction with Zoom learning. Finally, the findings of the thematic analysis of the interviewees' responses show that there were other factors influencing the participants' perceptions. Thus, an informed combination of face-to-face and Zoom learning is encouraged as a sustainable solution to enhance student satisfaction.

'Out of touch' University teachers' negative engagements with technology during COVID-19

In the wake of COVID-19, enthusiasm is growing for hybrid and other blended forms of teaching. Before celebrating the hybrid future of education, however, it is instructive to interrogate its hybrid pres-ence. Accordingly, this article explores pedagogical challenges prompted by the pandemic pivot to online teaching. Analysing qualitative survey data from Danish university teachers (n = 488), we identify five critical stances towards educational technology: (1) technologies are fine when used correctly;(2) technical issues are a major obstacle;(3) hybrid teaching is overwhelming;(4) one's sense of students suffers online;and (5) students hide behind their screens. Based on these results, this article identifies two challenges for the hybrid future of education: the problem of presence and the webcam-related tension between surveillance and care.

Increasing Social Media Presence for Graduate Medical Education Programs.

Virtual residency interviews during COVID-19 pandemic created a need for residency programs to use social media to increase their visibility and connect with potential applicants. This was, however, new and a road never travelled for many programs. This report describes how our General Surgery Residency Program increased its presence through social media by using various exposure methods and approaches, including diversifying presence and developing candid personalized content. Results suggest that these methods have increased our exposure and reach from an average of 7 people per post to posts reaching over 4500 people. Moreover, the video posts introducing our residents and faculty provided the highest activity and reach. Thus, appropriate use of social media with described interventions and new content creation could exponentially increase the visibility of a residency program. Moreover, educating faculty and residents on the use and importance of social media could increase their interest and participation as well.

University students' mental well-being during COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of resilience between meaning in life and mental well-being.

The current study aims to examine (a) the mental well-being of university students, who were taking online classes, and (b) and test whether resilience would mediate the relationship between meaning in life and mental well-being. The sample of 302 university students (Mage = 20.25 years; 36.1% men, 63.9% women) was taken from the universities of Punjab, Pakistan. The participants were recruited online and they completed a cross-sectional survey comprising the scales of meaning in life, resilience, and mental well-being during COVID-19. Findings from the study indicated that participants had a normal to a satisfactory level of overall mental wellbeing during COVID-19. Resilience acted as a mediator for both the presence of meaning in life, the search for meaning in life, and mental well-being. Demographic variables including family size were significantly and positively related to resilience while the availability of personal room showed a significant positive relationship with mental well-being. These findings suggest that meaning in life and resilience supports mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic and that effective steps should be taken to make the lives of university students more meaningful and resilient.

The Importance of General Surgery Residency Program's Online Presence Varies Among Applicant Groups.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated an exclusively virtual 2021 residency application cycle. We hypothesized that residency programs' online presence would have increased utility and influence for applicants. METHODS: Substantial surgery residency website modifications were undertaken in the summer of 2020. Page views were gathered by our institution's information technology office for comparison across years and programs. An anonymous, voluntary, online survey was sent to all interviewed applicants for our 2021 general surgery program match. Five-point Likert-scale questions evaluated applicants' perspective on the online experience. RESULTS: Our residency website received 10,650 page views in 2019 and 12,688 in 2020 (P = 0.14). Page views increased with a greater margin compared to a different specialty residency program's (P < 0.01). From 108 interviewees, 75 completed the survey (69.4%). Respondents indicated our website was satisfactory or very satisfactory compared to other programs (83.9%), and none found it unsatisfactory. Applicants overall stated our institution's online presence impacted their decision to interview (51.6%). Programs' online presence impacted the decision to interview for nonWhite applicants (68%) but significantly less for white applicants (31%, P < 0.03). We observed a trend that those with fewer than this cohort's median interviews (17 or less) put more weight on online presence (65%), compared to those with 18 or greater interviews (35%). CONCLUSIONS: Applicants utilized program websites more during the 2021 virtual application cycle; our data show most applicants depend on institutions' websites to supplement their decision-making; however, there are subgroup differences in the influence online presence has on applicant decisions. Efforts to enhance residency webpages and online resources for candidates may positively influence prospective surgical trainees, and especially those underrepresented in medicine, to decide to interview.

Teachers' and students' perceptions of a sense of community in blended education.

Universities have renewed interest in blended learning in preparation for post-COVID education. However, unsatisfactory social interactions hinder the quality of blended learning, despite its potential for flexible and personalized learning. In this situation, a sense of community would provide essential academic and social benefits. To develop a sense of community among students, we need to further understand students' and teachers' perceptions concerning this subject by exploring their experiences in blended learning. Therefore, we investigated this for three blended courses using a qualitative case study approach. We conducted: (1) classroom observation; (2) document analysis of course content, assignments, and assessments; and (3) individual interviews with teachers (n = 3) and group interviews with students (n = 18). The results showed the main factors that appeared to contribute to sense of community: group learning activities within courses, non-academic and extracurricular activities across courses, and the campus as a physical place integrating academic and social life after COVID. Further, we identified two obstacles: students valued group learning but struggled to manage group dynamics, and despite teachers' efforts to encourage learning autonomy, students viewed teachers as the ultimate authority in the learning process, which strained the student-teacher relationship. Additionally, this study revealed the limitations that digital tools have for promoting sense of community, as students questioned whether these tools have added value for supporting intricate and in-depth conversations. Finally, based on these findings, we provided practical recommendations for the future development of sense of community in blended learning.

Caring through things at a distance: Intimacy and presence in teletherapy assemblages.

The COVID-19 crisis in the UK precipitated a sharp rise in the use of remote technologies to provide therapy during the lockdown. With mental health care services migrating to devices and video-conferencing platforms, nearly all forms of therapy had become 'teletherapy'. Drawing on interviews with UK-based practitioners, this paper explores how existing ideas of intimacy and presence are challenged when care is practiced at a distance. Against the background of concerns that remote technologies erode intimacy and degrade physical presence, the argument is made that presence, distance, intimacy and control are reconfigured within mediated therapy. Analysis of practitioners' experiences of teletherapy examines the material and expressive components of 'assemblages' characterised by their stable and fluid properties. Two assemblages are identified and discussed: emergency care assemblages and assemblages of intimacy, both of which are aligned with specific sectors of mental health care. Evidence that therapeutic encounters are constrained by technologies are considered alongside the material conditions and inequalities of vulnerable groups, while assemblages with relatively stable properties are generative of new ways of relating to clients online. These findings highlight the material and expressive components of human and nonhuman assemblages that create new kinds of affective relations in distanced care.

Toward a new business model of retail industry: The role of brand experience and brand authenticity

While the customer-to-manufacturer (C2M) business model has received increasing attention as a new business model for e-commerce and retail industry, little is still known about it and the effect of its approach. This study aims to understand how brand-related stimuli in C2M environments affect customer responses as the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The outcomes reveal that the Sensory, affective, and intellectual aspects of brand experience positively influence brand authenticity. Brand authenticity has a positive effect on behavioral intention, such as reuse intention and word-of-mouth. Additionally, this research finds that social presence moderates the association between the sensory aspect of brand experience. Thus, this study can suggest a C2M business model as a means of sustainable operation of the retail industry to both researchers and practitioners in relation to the retail industry.

Teaching presence in students' WhatsApp groups: Affordances for language learning

With the recent COVID-19 pandemic and disruption of campus-based education, the use of mobile social networking applications to supplement formal education has attracted a great deal of attention. Teachers do have opportunities to join students' online groups to share, clarify, and exchange housekeeping information and course-related content with them. Teachers can, in particular, provide English as a foreign language (EFL) students with more sources of linguistic input, interaction, and feedback. Research investigating this potential, however, is still scarce in such contexts. The current study explores the likely affordances of teaching presence in students' WhatsApp groups for designing, facilitating, and guiding cognitive and social processes conducive to their language learning. A mixed-method design was employed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data and information from English-major undergraduates (N = 111) and faculty teachers (N = 8) who joined the same WhatsApp groups for one academic semester at a major university in Oman. Descriptive and thematic analyses of data from a survey with both closed-ended and open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews indicate that the shared WhatsApp groups functioned as small close-knit communities where students were able to constantly access teachers for their assistance, feedback, and clarification of content. Despite these merits, however, the participating faculty believed that the presence of teachers in WhatsApp groups might have consequences for students' tolerance of ambiguity, scaffolding, and autonomous language learning. The paper concludes by discussing several pedagogical implications and directions for future research.

Design to Improve Social Presence among University Students in Asynchronous Online Learning Environment

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, online lectures are becoming more common in higher education. Specifically, asynchronous online classes have become increasingly popular because of their flexibility. Asynchronous online courses, however, may negatively impact students' academic performance and social development due to the diminished sense of social presence. To explore ways to enhance social presence among students in asynchronous online classes, this paper used a co-design methodology that involved 12 undergraduate students as primary stakeholders. As a result, we developed a design framework for designing in-class interaction to promote social presence in asynchronous online lectures. This framework consists of four high-level elements and sub-categories: interaction topic (direct or peripheral topics related to learning), interaction size (small or entire group), interaction mode (anonymity, synchronicity, instructor involvement), and interaction motivator (lightweightness and entertainment). Our design framework may serve as a guide to future technology for improving asynchronous online classes. © 2023 Owner/Author.

The Use of Social Media by Churches During the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa

This chapter discusses the use of social media by some classical South African Pentecostal churches to minister to their members during the government-imposed lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Christ's promise to abide with the church until the end of the age (Matt 28:20b) is used to appreciate the availability of social media in a time that threatened the church's existence. Instead of resisting the use of social media, classical South African Pentecostal churches must welcome it as God's providence to help the church to overcome COVID-19. Content analysis is used as the method of data collection and data analysis. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Re-humanising management through co-presence: Lessons from enforced telework during the second wave of Covid-19

The use of enforced telework during the Covid-19 crisis sheds light on the importance of co-presence—i.e., presence mediated by information and communication technologies instead of physical proximity—for managing people. Previous studies on telework have exposed the risk of social isolation, which can lead workers to feel dehumanised. In this paper, we investigate how management adapts to co-presence by drawing on 28 semi-structured interviews conducted in February and March 2021 among employees and managers from private and public organisations in Belgium. Surprising results show that co-presence was mainly lived as a way to maintain proximity and constituted an opportunity for some managers to re-humanise their work approach, and for employees to feel humanely managed. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for the study of humanisation and co-presence in management, including some critical considerations regarding the very notions of ‘de-' and ‘re-humanisation', and make recommendations in terms of technology, work organisation, and management. © 2023 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Comparison of Student Achievement in Electricity Using Augmented Reality between Offline and Online Classes

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected education in Indonesia. The government has suggested alternatives to solve the learning problems during the pandemic. Offline and online classes were used to fulfil the various learning needs of students. This study investigated the effect of using augmented reality-assisted media in offline and online classes on student achievement amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used a quasi-experimental design by utilising augmented reality (AR) in each class for eight weeks. Validated test questions were used fol-lowing the use of AR. According to the results of the independent t-test in the current study, student achievement from offline (n = 63, M = 74.71) and online (n = 64, M= 71.46) classes increased drastically with t = 1.994, p = 0.048. However, in terms of differences in achievement improvement between the two classes, students in of-fline classes had higher achievement compared to those in online classes. Thus, it can be concluded that student achievement in Physics has improved with the help of augmented reality-assisted media amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly through offline learning mode. This study contributes to the development of AR for future education, particularly how to enhance student achievement in Physics. Future AR studies can be carried out in more classes from various regions or countries, considering that the 3D models in AR are useful to aid the learning of other subjects with concepts. © 2023 Science Education Study Program FMIPA UNNES Semarang.