Do social features help in video-centric online learning platforms? A presence perspective

The popularity of online learning is growing exponentially. Accordingly, it is critical to understand how we can facilitate the learning experience for users in these unique online environments. Past research consistently finds that one important antecedent of online learning outcomes is social presence. However, there is limited research related to how to foster social presence perceptions among users. Further, research has yet to understand whether there are boundary conditions for the positive effects of social presence perceptions on user outcomes (e.g., perceived learning, satisfaction). The current work describes two studies to address these questions. The first study uses an experimental design to investigate how the perception of social presence can be increased in the online learning context. In the second study, we investigate the degree to which social presence perceptions are more beneficial for some …