E-learning environments imply the interaction between computers and individuals and also the effective communication between individuals who are not physically in the same place. In such circumstances, psychosocial phenomena, such as social presence could emerge. Social presence has been conceptualized as the degree of salience, understanding, and interdependence with the other person with whom one is interacting. Students who use an e-learning environment in their classes could feel this kind of experiences while working with their peers, which could even facilitate the emergence of other psychosocial phenomena, and improve their learning in such environments. The aim of this study was to analyse the sense of social presence in a university student sample and its relationship with their perceived learning and other psychosocial processes. The sample was composed of university students from Castellón (Spain). They were using the Virtual Interactive Learning Environment and specifically the so-called application Human Site (http://humansite.net), in one subject during the past academic year (2007-2008). Students completed a questionnaire about their experiences while using Human Site prior to their exam covering the subject. Confidentiality of their responses was completely guaranteed.
In particular, we used the Networked Minds Social Presence Measure (Harms & Biocca, 2004), that assessed the sense of social presence experienced in an e-learning environment, and which encompasses: co-presence (i.e., the degree in which the observer believes he or she is not alone and secluded), attentional allocation (i.e., the amount of attention the user allocates to and receives from the interactant), perceived message understanding (i.e., the understanding of the message being received from the interactant), perceived affective understanding (i.e., the understanding of an interactant’s emotional and attitudinal states), perceived affective interdependence (i.e., the extent to which the user’s emotional and attitudinal state affects and is affected by the emotional and attitudinal states of the interactant), and finally perceived behavioural interdependence (i.e., the extent to which a user’s behaviour affects and is affected by the interactant’s behaviour). We also assessed the learning perceived by these students in the analysed subject. The results show the emergence of the sense of social presence among students while they are using Human Site in their subject and its relationship with perceived learning, and other psychosocial processes. The implications of the results for university teaching-learning processes using information and communication technologies, future research guidelines, and also the limitations of the study are also discussed.