The social presence of online education: how MOOC platforms in China cope with collective trauma during COVID-19

Abstract

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, offline programmes of universities in China had to be rescheduled, classes were moved online based on the government’s requirements. The paper investigated how an online learning environment – especially massive open online course (MOOC) platforms – introduced a sense of social presence in students’ lives to help them better deal with trauma and changed circumstances. To this end, the author conducted a questionnaire-based survey of 5,000 students and 620 teachers at Communication University of China from May 2020 to June 2020 and analysed the respondents’ attitudes towards online community learning during the outbreak and the associated trauma period. The survey reveals that the mimicked social networking environment ensures that students perceive social presence and makes the trauma more bearable. By applying social presence theory to the ongoing crisis and conducting a case study of online education adopted by a Chinese university, this research deepens the understanding of technical reality and social networking environment creation described by the theory. Meanwhile, by analysing co-presence, immediacy, and intimacy in community learning, this study paints a more nuanced picture of the mental state of traumatised groups in a virtual environment.