A Longitudinal Investigation of Changes in Perceived Social Presence of Off- Site Students in a Blended M.Ed. Program Monique Bournot-Trites, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada, monique.bournot-trites@ubc.ca Victoria Surtees, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada, vsurtees@gmail.com Abstract: At the graduate level, where negotiation and discussion are paramount, asynchronous delivery may be insufficient for developing a community of inquiry in which knowledge is created through group construction. One solution is a blended approach in which off-site students participate in traditional classes with on-site peers through videoconferencing and online discussions. This paper reports on one such program, focusing on how the social presence of off- site participants was perceived by on-site and off-site students and how perceptions changed over the two-year program. Initial findings suggest that low perceived language ability negatively impacted social presence; however, following a three-week mid-program course attended by all students, a marked positive shift was observed. The data come from a larger study evaluating a Master’s program delivered in French in a large Western Canadian university. Social presence, defined as “the ability of learners to project themselves socially and emotionally, thereby being perceived as “real” people in mediated communication”, plays a significant role in students’ satisfaction and sense of community in both blended and online environments (Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007, p.159). To date, few studies have explored how social presence develops in the context of multi-access courses in which on-site students participate with off-site students in traditional classes via videoconferencing. This paper aims to explore factors that promote or inhibit social presence in a videoconferencing context, focusing on two cases: one off-site student, who seemed particularly successful in establishing social presence within the group and a second less successful off-site student. The data come from a larger study, which aimed to evaluate a Master’s in Education program at a Western Canadian university. The two-year program, delivered in French, was based on socio-constructivist notions of learning and was designed for K-12 French teachers. After a brief review of the literature, this paper will present the context and the method as well as preliminary findings from our initial round of qualitative analysis of interview and questionnaire data. Social presence in a multi-access course Many program designs based on socio-constructivist theories of learning now incorporate technology in ways that encourage student interaction and scaffold critical thinking. Such courses aim to establish communities of inquiry in which learning results from group construction of knowledge in a specific social context. In the community of inquiry framework, elaborated by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000), social presence, along with teaching and cognitive presence, is one of the elements necessary to achieve new knowledge construction. Significant relationships have been found with social presence, satisfaction, and perceived learning as measured quantitatively through survey data and qualitatively through the analysis of transcripts (Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007). Indicators of social presence include affective expression, openness to communication, and group cohesion. Open communication and cohesion are based on identification with the group and course material, while affective expression typically takes the form of encouragement, talk about private lives or other talk not directly related to the course material (Akyol & Garrison, 2008). Blended learning environments which include synchronous communication have been found to foster stronger social presence and increased interaction (Yamada, 2009). The synchronous blended course design described in our study incorporated a videoconferencing component which allowed off-site students to participate with on-site students in -191- SITE 2015 - Las Vegas, NV, United States, March 1-6, 2015