The nature of ‘flexible’ online learning has changed with institutions seeing that it is possible to move courses fully online to support and progress the development of a community of learners. In designing flexible, and engaging online distance courses, there are many challenges but above and beyond, supporting learners’ build their social presence online and creating that feeling of ‘belonging’ is key to building that community of learners. Social presence has many definitions, but this study aligns with ‘feeling socially and emotionally connected’ with peers and teachers, in an online learning environment. Social presence is key in the Community of Inquiry framework, and the lens that has been chosen, to view the complexities of online course design and begin our investigations into fostering social presence and professional connections in our postgraduate online distance course with veterinary professionals.

This study explored veterinary professionals’ (expert learners) perceptions of social presence who were enrolled in our online MSc in Veterinary Education at the Royal Veterinary College from 2021-2023, delving primarily into asynchronous (forums, pre-recorded videos, podcasts) and synchronous (interactive webinars, virtual q and A’s) learning opportunities that our online course offers, and how those contributed to learners developing their social presence and the initial building of a professional learning community. Course participants completed the Community of Inquiry inventory which explored their sense of belonging on the course, their interactions with peers/lecturer (social presence), their understanding and critical thinking (cognitive presence), and further the effectiveness of the facilitation of the course (teaching presence.) This then led to further individual experiences being explored via semi-structured interviews, with twelve participants being recruited and results thematically analysed.

Asynchronous and synchronous learning opportunities that our course offers were discussed, sharing specifically how the timetabled, ‘live’ webinars were prioritised, as there was an ability to have a ‘real-time’ dialogue with a peer/teacher, providing a sense of immediacy not available within the asynchronous learning opportunities. Visibility and identifiability of peers and teachers in those online learning opportunities were important factors for how our learners began building their sense of belonging to their peers and the course, those key social interactions built the ‘social and emotional’ foundation to establish their ‘social presence’ online and the initial connections of a personal and professional community of learning were being developed. Those social relationships, open dialogue and communication in shared learning opportunities created a richer, more meaningful learning experience for all. A key outcome of this study found that prioritising those early social interactions in the asynchronous and synchronous learning opportunities provided, allowed peers to collaborate, building personal and then professional connections, that enabled external professional communities of practice to emerge, sharing teaching, resources, and perspectives that ultimately supported their educational practice and professional growth.

Keywords: Expert learners, social presence, community of practice.