Towards E-presence at Distance as a Way to Reach and Share E-quality: The Case of the ECO sMOOCs

摘要

This paper presents an original approach to e-presence in social participatory MOOCs (or sMOOCs), taking the case of EU-funded ECO project on sMOOCs. First it considers the model for e-presence based on the different layers proposed by Garrison and Anderson (2003): "cognitive presence" (emphasis on the reflexive) and "social presence" (emphasis on the collaborative) to which "designed presence" is added (emphasis on the platform constraints and opportunities) (Frau-Meigs 2013). Using examples from a corpus of sMOOCs produced for ECO, the paper then proposes an ECO model for e-presence. It incorporates the various tools developed for the participants by the creative team of managers/trainers in this model, according to how they foster one of the types of e-presence (cognitive, social and designed). The results show that these tools tend to be more cognitive and designed than social, probably because social presence can be carried on with online commercial platforms for chatting and blogging. The conclusions point to the use of e-presence to diminish distance and to bring awareness to pedagogical and technical design and functionalities. Such tools for e-presence produce a multiplier effect that can use the benefits of heavy prototype investment at the beginning by ensuring some sustainability over time and e-quality. Such e-presence is part of the ECO model that contributes to the specificity and originality of European MOOCs in the global MOOCosphere. This process indicates that e-quality itself is being redesigned by sMOOCs, in a qualitative manner.