Online learning can be challenging for both the students and instructors. Students can feel isolated or intimidated by the asynchronous environment, and instructors may find it difficult to connect with students as well as encourage active learning and critical thinking. Instructor presence (IP), as presented by the community of inquiry model (CoI), suggests that there are three areas of presence that must be applied cohesively to create an environment that is satisfying to students and the instructor: teaching, social, and cognitive. In this chapter, the authors report their findings of applied IP on student pass rates, drop rates, and satisfaction after exposing online instructors to IP training that provided immediate application examples. The findings suggested that when IP is applied effectively, student outcomes are significantly improved and are sustainable. This chapter will also share specific strategies, based on this model, that were utilized in the authors' research protocol.

Keywords

vocative case · instructor presence · rubric · avatar · social presence · cognitive presence · valediction · community of inquiry · multiple intelligence · grammarly · teaching presence