After delving more into the concept of teaching presence, I don’t think my view of effective practice has changed very much. What has been highlighted for me though, is the extreme importance of teaching presence. I agree with the authors who state that it is much more effective for the instructor to have presence than to just sit on the side-lines, which I imagine is fairly easy to do in an on-line context. Putting in the effort to have a sustained presence will make the course experience more enjoyable for students, and I would venture to guess, instructors as well.
The practice I referred to in my first post (OTL301 Post 1) demonstrated the direct instruction aspect of teaching presence. The instructor, via personal email, responded to questions, explained concepts, diagnosed misconceptions, and responded to technical concerns.
In terms of direct instruction, I’m not sure it could have been more effective! However, lacking from the course, in my opinion, was the aspect of facilitating discourse. There was not very much communal posting, therefore, not much discussion for the instructor to motivate, move along, or draw links to (identifying congruence and disparity of ideas/opinions).