Social Presence and Interaction in Learning Environments: The Effect on Student Success

With the increased use of social media there is a growing interest in using social interaction and social presence in education. Despite this phenomenon, no appropriate methodology was found on effective integrating of both concepts into online learning. In this study, we propose integrating two different kinds of learning tools to provide social interaction and social presence in Personal Learning Environments. We have evaluated the proposed concept in a classroom setting, using a specific social interaction tool and a specific social presence tool. The findings revealed that although the use of the social interaction tool was positively associated with students' academic success, the perceived ease of using the social presence tool was negatively related to students' success.