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29s

Student Presentation (No formal paper)

**Social Presence: Meeting the Needs of Today's Student** //Christopher P. Daniels, Graduate Student, Educational Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA, christopher.paul.daniels@gmail.com // //Tiffany Akiyama, Graduate Student, Educational Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA,twjsakiy@hawaii.edu //

The study of interaction among course participants is one of the most rapidly growing areas of technology mediated research and is becoming a cornerstone of the online course experience. Research suggests that the development of learning communities is a primary characteristic that predicts online learning effectiveness. Social presence is a key component that leads to the development of a strong learning community and has been identified as a strong predictor of satisfaction in an online learning environment (Gunawardena and Zittle, 1997; Lu, Huang, Ma & Luce, 2007; Tu & McIsaac, 2002; Rourke & Kanuka, 2009). The purpose of this learning object is to educate instructors about social presence and inform them of the tools they can use to enhance social presence in an online course.

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