In the last decade, there have been an increasing number of studies concerning the effect of presence on learning outcomes in asynchronous online learning. However, scarce attempts have been made to synthesize results from previous studies conducted s...
In the last decade, there have been an increasing number of studies concerning the effect of presence on learning outcomes in asynchronous online learning. However, scarce attempts have been made to synthesize results from previous studies conducted so far.
This research aims to understand the overall effect of presence on learning outcomes in online learning and to understand how much impact moderators have on the relationship between presence and learning outcomes.
In pursuit of this purpose, 36 studies were collected from both dissertations and journal articles published in Korea. Pearson r was used to report effect sizes.
First, the overall relationship between presence and learning outcomes was analyzed. The overall effect size of presence on learning outcomes turned out to be strong (ESr ≥ .40) according to Cohen (1977)’s criteria. Specifically, it was found that each presence differed from each other in its effect on learning outcomes. Cognitive presence (.60) was the highest of all, which was followed by teaching presence (.52), emotional presence (.50) and social presence (.45) in a row.
Presence yielded relatively weaker correlation with cognitive outcomes like achievement (.37) whereas presence revealed the relatively stronger relationship with affective outcomes such as learning engagement (72).
A moderator analysis was also conducted in order to figure out the impact of other variables that can possibly mediate the relationship between presence and learning outcomes.
First, the effects of moderators regarding learners’ characteristics were investigated. The impact of presence was stronger in male-dominant classes (.60) than in female-dominant classes (.41). The more semester students spent in a college, the higher correlation between presence and learning outcomes was reported. In terms of students’ age, as the average age of students taking an online course increased, the effect of presence also slightly increased.
Secondly, the effects of moderators concerning methodological characteristics were analyzed. The effect of presence is more prominent in courses run for above 4 month (.55) than for below 2 month (.49). When it comes to institutional level, teaching and social presence turned out to be relatively stronger in online courses in traditional college whereas emotional and cognitive presence were relatively stronger in courses in cyber universities or corporates. As the size of class increased, the effect of presence slightly decreased but this result wasn’t statistically significant. Publication date had positively significant effect on the perception of presence(β=.047, p<.05).
Thirdly, the effects of moderators regarding instructional characteristics were investigated. The characteristics of most courses analyzed in this research can be classified as those from applied and soft disciplines. Of similar disciplines, the presence can be more effective on courses like social welfare (.72), which was followed by corporate practicum (.60), education (.48) and foreign language (.46) courses. The effect of presence was more prevalent in courses encouraging discussion (.60) than those without it(.53). The effect of presence was stronger in courses provided with blended learning environment (.75) than with traditional learning environment (.53).
This meta-analysis synthesized existing studies from a broad range of settings, researchers and circumstances and integrated conflicting findings to establish a general knowledge base about the effect of presence. Previous researches, however, have been conducted narrowly focusing on specific population or environment, which can possibly be a threat to the generalization of the results. In this regard, further studies should be followed up in the consideration of implications drawn from this study.