Teaching Presence

Teaching Presence is the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001).

Teaching Presence begins before the course starts as the instructor, acting as instructional designer, plans and prepares the course of studies. Teaching presence continues to be felt during the course, as the instructor facilitates student learning via discourse and provides direct instruction when required (Anderson, et al., 2001).

You develop Teaching Presence in your course in three main ways:

1. Design and Organization in the planning of your course, where you decide how your course works in terms of activities, assessment, and communication strategies.
2. Facilitation of Discourse during the delivery of your course when your course is in session, and Teaching Presence can be expressed and enhanced when you facilitate discourse through asynchronous and synchronous means.
3. Direct Instruction and Giving Direction during the delivery of your course and is enacted when you directly teach (both in the synchronous spaces and as through pre-developed presentations), when you share subject matter knowledge, when you provide directions for tasks, activities, and assignments, and when you assess student work by providing instructive feedback, clarifying concepts, and referring students to additional resources or practice opportunities.

A strong online teaching presence makes for a strong online learning experience and a sense of community for your students.

Also note that Teaching Presence does not refer to the instructor’s formal role as a “Teacher”, because, within the Community of Inquiry definition, Teaching Presence can be ‘owned’ by students as well. Based on the design of the course, students may have opportunities to co-contribute to the delivery of the course, such as through peer-evaluation, peer-led teaching and facilitation, and self-directed activities. In such cases, the instructor’s role facilitates students’ leadership in contributing to Teaching Presence.

Further, Teaching Presence can exist in a self-directed online course that is not instructor-supported. How? Teaching Presence exists if the course has been designed to include instructional elements, which can include directions on how to proceed, learning activities, and learning assessments. As you can imagine, a great deal of effort should be made to ensure that these instructional elements are appropriated situated within the course and communicated clearly and at appropriate moments in order to enable success for the self-directed learner.