Differences of instructor presence levels in predominately online versus predominately not online courses within the community college setting

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the level of instructor presence in the predominately online versus the predominately not online course. The increase in both the number of students enrolling on online courses and the number of courses/programs offered magnifies the need to address instructor presence. This case study considers students' perception of instructor presence in a predominately online and predominately not online course. Instructor presence was examined using the Community of Inquiry framework. The Community of Inquiry is a framework used to examine social, teaching and cognitive presence and the impact of such. Data was gathered from two courses in the different learning modalities. Students were enrolled in the courses at the same time with the same instructor. Statistical analysis utilized in this study included the Mann Whitney U, Spearman's rho and Kendall tau. A significance level of P<(.05) was used for all tests. This research found no statistically significant difference in the levels of instructor presence in a predominately online course when compared to a predominately not online course. The two significant results in relation to instructor presence and course satisfaction were mixed. Course outcome and instructor presence are addressed with discussion and recommendations for further research included. This study contributes to the research by providing further data regarding students' perception of and the significance of instructor presence.