By Simone C. O. Conceição
What makes an online learner feel genuinely connected to a course — not just enrolled in it? The answer comes down to presence: the sense of being there, of experiencing real connection with an instructor, with peers, and with the learning environment itself. Presence is not a byproduct of technology or format — it is something that must be intentionally designed, cultivated, and sustained throughout the life of a course. For online instructors, this is one of the most important and underestimated challenges in teaching today.
Presence in online learning is defined as a sense of "being there" or "being together" in a shared learning environment (Lehman & Conceição, 2010). It is not simply a technical feature of a platform — it is a felt experience that emerges from the interaction between learners, instructors, content, and the environment in which learning occurs. When presence is strong, students feel seen, supported, and part of something real. When it is absent, they feel isolated, anonymous, and disengaged — conditions that consistently predict lower performance and higher dropout rates.
The most important distinction in understanding online presence is between what it is and what it merely appears to be. An instructor who posts frequently but in an impersonal way does not necessarily create presence. An instructor who posts less frequently but responds thoughtfully, shares relevant personal context, and acknowledges individual students by name can generate a powerful sense of being there — even in an asynchronous course with no real-time interaction.
Presence is, at its core, a relational achievement. It must be created from both sides — by instructors who show up deliberately and by learners who are supported in doing the same (Lehman & Conceição, 2010). Research confirms that when instructor and peer presence are felt in online courses, a sense of classroom community results, which predicts both academic satisfaction and perceived learning (Kennette & Redd, 2015).
The Being There for the Online Learner Model
Lehman and Conceição (2010) offer a foundational framework for understanding and building online presence: the Being There for the Online Learner Model. This model is grounded in the psychological, social, and emotional dimensions of presence and provides a practical architecture for course design.
The model begins with four types of experience through which presence can be felt:
· Subjective — what occurs within the learner's own mind; the internal sense of being present
· Objective — the psychological sense that "you are there," when technology becomes transparent, and the focus shifts to the learning and the people involved
· Social — presence as experienced through interactions with others; when others in the virtual environment feel real
· Environmental — the "ability to easily access and modify, provide input about, and interact with the online environment" (Lehman & Conceição, 2010, p. 17)
These types of experience are shaped by four modes of presence through which learners engage online:
· Realism — a close match with the real world; the environment feels natural rather than artificial
· Immersion — deep engagement that draws the learner fully into the experience
· Involvement — active participation in the learning process
· Suspension of disbelief — the learner's willingness to accept the online environment as real and meaningful
Finally, the model accounts for three learner dimensions that affect how presence is perceived and constructed: the interior world of the learner (thoughts, feelings, and prior knowledge), the interface with the real world (how learners perceive and make meaning from the environment), and the concrete world shared with others (the social and collaborative space of learning) (Lehman & Conceição, 2010).
Together, these elements form a layered model that helps instructors understand why some course designs generate a strong presence while others leave learners feeling disconnected — even when the content is identical. See Figure 1 for a graphical representation of the model.
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| Figure 1. Being There for the Online Learner Model |
Why Presence Matters More Than Ever
The physical distance inherent in online learning creates what theorists call transactional distance — a psychological and communicative gap between instructors and students that can undermine engagement and deepen isolation (Moore, 2013). But transactional distance is not determined solely by geography. It is shaped by course structure, interaction quality, and the instructor’s responsiveness to learners (Best & Conceição, 2017)
The stakes are real. When online learners experience a loss of connection to classmates and to the instructor, they also experience depersonalization and a decrease in accountability (Lehman & Conceição, 2010). These are not peripheral concerns — they are structural conditions that affect whether students persist, perform, and ultimately succeed. A 2024 study of 1,086 students found that interactive communication tools positively impact students' perceived instructor presence, which in turn drives both satisfaction and engagement; the researchers concluded that "a stronger instructor presence has been positively correlated with higher student satisfaction, given that students have felt more connected and supported throughout their learning journey" (Roque-Hernández et al., 2024, p. 2).
A 2025 study published in Scientific Reports found that teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence all positively predict learning performance in blended and online environments, and that teaching presence has the most critical influence on students' academic emotions — including engagement and motivation (Li & Ye, 2025). These findings reinforce the core argument of Lehman and Conceição (2010): instructor presence creates a comfortable environment for the learner, which leads to meeting course learning outcomes.
The Six Determinants of Presence
One of the most practically useful contributions of the Lehman and Conceição (2010) framework is its identification of six determinants of presence — the design variables that instructors can control when building a course. These determinants provide a concrete roadmap for translating the abstract concept of presence into real instructional decisions:
1. Type and focus of content — How the content is framed and what it asks of the learner
2. Format of the learning experience — Whether activities are self-paced, collaborative, synchronous, or asynchronous
3. Interactive strategies — The specific mechanisms through which learners engage with the instructor, with each other, and with content
4. Role of the instructor — How visibly and consistently the instructor participates in the learning experience
5. Types of technology — The platforms and tools selected to mediate learning
6. Kinds of support provided — Academic, technical, and social support structures available to learners
These determinants do not operate in isolation. A course that uses rich interactive technology but provides no role modeling from the instructor, for example, may produce environmental presence without social or subjective presence. Effective design requires attention to all six (Lehman & Conceição, 2010). Figure 2 shows the Framework for Designing Online Courses with a Sense of Presence.
| Figure 2. Framework for Designing Online Courses with a Sense of Presence |
Building Presence Before, During, and After the Course
One of the most important practical insights from Lehman and Conceição (2010) is that presence is not a feature to be switched on at the start of a course — it must be created before the course officially begins, sustained throughout, and extended even after it ends.
Presence-building starts at enrollment. Sending a welcome message before the first day of class, providing a personal introduction, orienting students to the course structure, and establishing clear expectations are among the most effective early moves an online instructor can make (Lehman & Conceição, 2010; Kennette & Redd, 2015). A short welcome video adds a human face and voice to what might otherwise feel like an anonymous digital space — activating the social and subjective dimensions of presence before a single lesson has been delivered.
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Practical Actions · Record a brief welcome video that introduces yourself and explains how the course works · Send a personalized welcome email before the course opens · Create an orientation module that students complete before encountering any graded content · Invite students to introduce themselves and share something personal alongside their academic background |
During the Course
Presence must be actively maintained throughout the course. This means showing up in discussions not just to evaluate, but to think alongside students — asking probing questions, connecting student contributions to course concepts, and making visible the collective thinking happening in the thread. It also means providing timely, individualized, and human feedback (Lehman & Conceição, 2010).
A 2025 study on hybrid-flexible learning found that video-based instructor feedback significantly reduces transactional distance by signaling care and engagement — students consistently reported feeling more supported when feedback was delivered in video rather than solely in text (Nussli & Oh, 2025). Research on social presence similarly found that video discussion boards produce significantly higher self-reported perceptions of presence compared to text-based formats (Lehman & Conceição, 2010).
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Practical Actions · Respond to discussion posts with follow-up questions, not just evaluative comments · Post brief weekly video or audio announcements that connect current content to the bigger picture · Offer audio or video feedback on major assignments rather than text-only comments · Name and credit individual student contributions when building on them in subsequent interactions · Create informal spaces — a "Coffee House" discussion board or open Q&A thread — where students can connect outside structured coursework |
After the Course
The end of a course is an opportunity, not a finish line. Closing the experience intentionally — with a summary of what the group accomplished together, acknowledgment of individual growth, and guidance on next steps — reinforces the sense that a real learning community existed and mattered (Lehman & Conceição, 2010).
Presence as an Instructional Design Problem
Perhaps the most consequential argument in Lehman and Conceição (2010) is this: presence is not a personality trait — it is a instructonal design problem. Instructors who feel "naturally" engaging in a face-to-face classroom may struggle online not because they lack charisma, but because the cues they rely on — eye contact, vocal tone, physical proximity, spontaneous responsiveness — are either absent or significantly attenuated in the digital environment.
This reframing is liberating. It means presence can be learned, designed, and improved systematically. An instructor who is deliberate about the six determinants of presence, who attends to the types of experience they create for learners, and who builds interaction strategies into the structure of the course — rather than leaving connection to chance — will build presence regardless of their natural communication style.
The following table organizes the determinants of presence from Lehman and Conceição (2010) alongside practical actions and the type of presence each tends to activate:
Building presence in an online environment is not a checklist to complete at the start of a semester. It is an ongoing commitment to showing up — consistently, intentionally, and humanly — in a space where it is easy to disappear. Lehman and Conceição (2010) remind us that the goal is not to replicate the face-to-face classroom online, but to create a different kind of learning experience that is equally real, equally connected, and equally capable of producing deep and lasting learning.
The online learner sitting alone with a screen deserves to feel that someone is genuinely there — not as a system-generated notification, but as a thinking, caring, present human being. That experience does not happen by accident. It happens by design.
Best, B., & Conceição, S. C. (2017). Transactional Distance Dialogic Interactions and Student Satisfaction in a Multi-Institutional Blended Learning Environment. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-learning, 20(1).
Kennette, L. N., & Redd, P. D. (2015). Instructor presence helps bridge the gap between online and on-campus students. College Quarterly, 18(4). https://collegequarterly.ca/2015-vol18-num04-fall/kennette-redd.html
Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. O. (2010). Creating a sense of presence in online teaching: How to "be there" for distance learners. Jossey-Bass.
Li, X., & Ye, Y. (2025). Mediating role of online academic emotions between online presence and learning performance in blended learning environments. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 29875.
Moore, M. G. (2013). The theory of transactional distance. In Handbook of distance education (pp. 66-85). Routledge.
Nussli, N. C., & Oh, K. (2025). Reducing transactional distance in a hybrid-flexible learning environment in higher education: Interaction and engagement despite asynchronous communication. Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange, 18(1), 195-214.
Roque-Hernández, R. V., López-Mendoza, A., & Salazar-Hernandez, R. (2024). Perceived instructor presence, interactive tools, student engagement, and satisfaction in hybrid education post-COVID-19 lockdown in Mexico. Heliyon, 10(6).
Course Design and Teaching | Digital Library
To continue exploring how presence shapes meaningful online learning experiences, we invite you to expand your knowledge through the Conversations About Online Teaching and Learning Series in the Adult Learning Exchange Virtual Community Digital Library on Patreon. These resources offer practical insights, research-based perspectives, and strategies for designing engaging and supportive online environments.
These conversations highlight how intentional course design, interaction, communication, and support can foster connection, engagement, and meaningful learning in online environments. We encourage you to explore the series, reflect on your own practice, and continue the conversation about creating online learning experiences with a strong sense of presence.
