This chapter determines the social presence perceptions and motivation levels of higher education students participating in the online learning environment and reveals the possible causes that affect these variables. According to the findings obtained from the study in which the explanatory design was used among the mixed research methods, it was concluded that the social presence perceptions of the participants were lower compared to their motivation. Besides, it was found out that there is a positive relationship between social presence and motivation variables. According to the qualitative findings, the majority of the participants stated that they were not satisfied with distance education, encountered technical and hardware problems, and the online learning environment was not effective enough in the context of communication and interaction. The research results contribute to the literature in terms of the effectiveness of online learning environments.
TopIntroduction
The coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic broke out at the end of 2019, causing thousands of deaths and negatively impacting the economy, education, health, and many other sectors in the global context. Due to the epidemic, many countries have had to develop strategies to combat the disease and have placed social distance among the most important measures to reduce the risk of transmission (Fiş Erümit, 2021). Undoubtedly, higher education institutions have also been severely affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. In this context, higher education institutions made a rapid transition to distance education and had to change their teaching strategies (Abuhammad, 2020). Distance education is defined as an institution-based and formal form of education in which learning groups are separated and interactive telecommunication systems are used to connect students, resources, and instructors (Schlosser & Simonson, 2009, p.1).
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) report, the global education technology investments reached $18.66 billion in 2019, and the distance education market will reach $350 billion by 2025 (WEF, 2020). After the pandemic process, universities had to make more efforts to provide more effective, productive, and attractive learning environments in connection with developments and changes in information and communication technologies through open and distance education systems. As a result, distance education applications, which were already on the rise, have increased more with the pandemic. Based on this increasing trend in distance education, it is vital to investigate the dimensions of the field. Therefore, the results of this research contribute to this field of knowledge, ensure the sustainability of open and distance education, and improve future studies in the field (Ukwoma & Ngulube, 2021).
Social presence and motivation in distance education are among the most important variables that need to be researched in the relevant field (Carabajal et al., 2007; Kim, 2011; Alsabawy et al., 2016). Social presence is defined as the degree of feeling of being with others in mediated learning environments as if they were in the real environment (Yen & Tu, 2011). In other words, social presence is about the degree to which participants feel about whether they interact with real people when they are online (Sung & Mayer, 2012). On the other hand, motivation is an internal process that guides a person to act to meet his needs (Lussier, 1996). According to Keller (1987), motivation was stated as an effort to perform an activity. It is underlined that motivation is a complex process as well as effective in the learning (Huang et al., 2006). Motivation is also considered an important element of students’ achievement (Keller & Suzuki, 2004).