EXPLORING SOCIAL PRESENCE IN ASYNCHRONOUS TEXT-BASED ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITIES (OLCS) Adisorn Na Ubon Department of Computer Science University of York, Heslington York, United Kingdom Chris Kimble Department of Computer Science University of York, Heslington York, United Kingdom Abstract This paper reports the findings from a longitudinal case study at University of York, UK. It aims to investigate the development of social presence among online members in text- based online learning environment. The transcripts from the electronic bulletin boards posted by online students and tutors in Health Economics for Health Care Professionals by Distance Learning Programme were studied using a research technique called content analysis. The findings from this study suggest that students and tutors in this programme employed different types and exhibited different degree of social presence when communicating in OLCs. However, similar patterns of social presence were found in each group of online participants. Introduction The role of educational institutions and educators in constructivist student- centred model is to provide students the learning environment that encourages critical reflection and knowledge construction through social interaction with other participants in a learning community (Palloff & Pratt, 1999). Facilitated by modern technologies, such as CMC, the concept of learning community, or community of learners (Brown, 2001; Wegerif, 1998), is recently applied to online settings known as online learning communities (OLCs). The notion of learning community is constructive. Research shows that strong sense of community not only increases persistence of students in online programmes, but also enhances information flow, learning support, group commitment, collaboration, and learning satisfaction (Dede, 1996; Wellman, 1999). From the literature, one of the important factors related to sense of community is social presence (Rovai, 2002). According to Garrison and Anderson (2003), the formation of community requires a sense of social presence among participants. As they state, “it is inconceivable to think that one could create a community without some degree of social