ELT: DASS Autonomy Development using ePortfolio

A well-built course allows not only active and self-directed learning but also collaborative work and we, teachers, should use the strengths of virtual learning environment (VLE) and learning management system (LMS) to support the learning process. Bulu (2012) suggests three categories of presence in virtual world, namely (1) (place) presence, (2) social presence and (3) copresence. The concept of social presence is attributed to Short, Williams, and Christie (1976). They defined social presence as “the degree of salience of the other person in the interaction and the consequent salience of the interpersonal relationships” (p. 65). The authors claim that communication medium can influence the level of intimacy and immediacy. Palloff and Pratt (2007, In: Lehman, Conceição, 2010, p. 8)) highlight social presence as a critical element in online community building.
The 21st century technology shifts the possibility of building presence what results in new techniques and strategies available. Lee (2004) defines presence as “a psychological state in which virtual (para-authentic or artificial) objects are experienced as actual objects in either sensory or nonsensory ways.” He (ibid) discusses two types of virtual objects—para-authentic and artificial. Para-authentic objects are simply the mediated versions of real-world objects. This might be presented with the redefined definition of social presence (Gunawardena, 1995, 151) which states that social presence is “the degree to which a person is perceived as a ‘real person’ in mediated communication.”