Abstract:

One of the struggles while teaching online during a pandemic is the issue of "presence." Unexpectedly, instructors and students are suffering the lack of physical contact. Sudden adjustments to the new online format have been adopted by educators and students – not everyone responds in the same way to the new virtual learning environment. The traditional face-to-face class offers several opportunities for instructor-student interaction and for student-student practice of the new content learned. Nonetheless, the online setting posts new challenges for online instructors – more so when in a pandemic. All classes now have to be taught fully online with asynchronous and/or synchronous facilitation without prior notice. For students, the instructor's presence is key in explaining and answering immediate questions; this is limited during fully online formats. In this study, I implement a branch of Practitioner Action Research identified as Self-Study and Auto-Ethnography to reflect on my efforts to provide presence and interaction for my online Spanish language classes. I provide a detailed analysis and description of several aspects of data that include reflections, self-observation memos, student artifacts, and online learning management monitoring. Finally, I discuss the pedagogical implications for improving the "presence" of the instructor in online classes.

Keywords:

Online learning, presence, interaction online.