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Faculty Perceptions And Experiences Of “Presence” In The Online Learning Environment, Anita Samuel

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological research study was to gain an understanding of how faculty who teach fully online courses perceive and experience presence. The 25 faculty participants in this study were drawn from a four-year institution of higher education in the Midwest. The faculty designed and taught their own courses. Data were collected through: (1) semi-structured in-depth interviews with each participant, (2) documentary analysis of two course syllabi from two different course offerings for each participant, and (3) observations of five participants’ online course sites over the duration of an academic semester (16 week course). Findings revealed that …