The Role of Social Presence in Interactive Learning with Social Software

Abstract

This chapter presents the effect of social presence in learning with social media. It is divided into four parts: introduction, theoretical background, effect of social presence in learning, and conclusion. The introductory section provides the historical background to computer-mediated communication (CMC) research in educational technology with special attention to the concept of social presence. The second section reviews previous research on social presence from the viewpoints of social psychology and educational technology. The third section presents the effects of social presence within social media as described in previous research, particularly Yamada (Comput Educ 52(4):820–833, 2009). Social presence appears to have an effect on motivation and other aspects of the affective side of learning. Avenues for future research are considered.