Social Presence in an Online Professional Conference

Abstract

This article is a report of a transcript content analysis of participants in six presentation sessions at the 21st Annual Teaching Colleges and Community Worldwide Online Conference. The study was conducted in order to examine the role of social presence in an online professional conference. How participants conveyed social presence and how it influenced their conference experience were explored. The results suggest that social presence can be established in a shorter time frame than previously thought possible compared to online courses conducted over a semester or term. Participants participating in online presentations lasting 20 to 45 min were able to project observable instances of social presence with two new indicators being manifested that were not previously in the literature.