Investigating the use of Voice over Internet Protocol and Social Presence in an Hybrid Graduate Research Course
Abstract: Key to the success of online educating is social presence, the sense of community and the learner feels (McIssac and Gunawardena, 1996) and/or the awareness of interpersonal relationships in an online course (Rice, 1993). This research investigated the participant students’ perceptions of one aspect of social presence, interactions, when a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) was incorporated into a graduate hybrid education course. Students were required to use the VoIP a minimum of three times during the course. After the completion of the course, the twenty-two hybrid course experienced students were queried about their perceptions of the level of group interaction and responsibility as compared with other hybrid graduates courses. The results indicated that a majority of participating students felt a greater degree of group interaction and responsibility in this course than they had in other hybrid courses.