The Social Presence of University Students in Virtual Teaching-Learning Environments in Times of Covid-19

Abstract

In this study, the social presence of university students participating in virtual learning environments was analyzed to determine the effectiveness of these new teaching-learning methods in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social presence is the ability of students to represent themselves socially and academically in an online context. Parameters related to social presence were considered, as well as the use of virtual environments and the perception of students regarding educational quality and teaching methods. It is observed that the social presence in the virtual classes is not the most effective, the results reveal that the students are passive, present economic difficulties, and need deeper teacher training for successful management of online academic strategies.