OnlineHE_Toolkit

20 The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Project Number: 2020-1-RO01-KA226-HE-095434 ● assign moderators in group-based discussions. Moderators are responsible for facilitating the communication: they initiate the discussion, sustain the dialogue, promote reflection, synthesise, and summarise the points discussed ● add gamification elements if possible (e.g., points, scores, leaderboards, badges collected and displayed, levels, teams). They promote students’ motivation to log into the online environment and be “socially'' present, simultaneously being engaged with the content, to sustain their online persona. B. Teaching presence is the “design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes” (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001, p. 5). To promote the teaching presence, the following tips are suggested: ● set clear expectations for learners and model expected behaviour ● be present frequently, for instance more than 3 times/week. Make sure that you are available, and students can reach out to you (e.g., hold virtual office hours) ● guide students during their self-regulated learning ● make announcements, send private messages/emails to make sure that students are on track and aware of any deadlines, responsibilities, changes in the programme ● suggest additional up-to-date resources/information while the course is running ● promptly reply to students’ inquiries and clarify misconceptions ● monitor and keep track of students’ presence through the analytics of the digital tools ● encourage students through comments/messages about their contributions C. Cognitive Presence is “the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse” (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2001, p. 93). To achieve this, we should focus on preparing and incorporating activities that build higher-order thinking skills (e.g., critical evaluation, analysis, synthesis), so that students are actively engaged with the learning content. Additional emphasis is placed on the reflective practices, the feedback provided, and the discussion established. To develop the cognitive presence, the following tips are provided: ● ask learners to identify their learning goal(s) for the course ● activate students’ prior knowledge to clarify misunderstandings and monitor what they know. This way new knowledge will be built upon the previous one ● include examples to consolidate understanding. Examples allow students to relate the learning content with real life situations.