On the importance of "presence" in a web-based course

An important, if not essential, component of effective education is the feeling of presence in the professor-student relationship. This paper defines the theoretical concept of presence and presents a series of strategies to promote it in web-based courses intended for distance learning. It is based on research on two courses: a freshman level self-paced course and a graduate level lecture course. During one semester, a direct comparison was made in both courses using the class itself as an internal control with the professor spending half time on campus and half time in Japan. Many of the techniques discussed here could be used with profit in a more conventional web-based course.