Instructor presence is required for social presence to occur, and social presence is necessary for cognitive presence (Akyol & Garrison, 2008; Garrison, et al., 2001; Shea & Bidjerano, 2009).  Furthermore, Shea & Bidjerano (2009) purport that “teaching presence predicts variance in cognitive presences directly” (p. 545). As an example, they found that when the instructor focused and participated in discussion, teaching presence correlated to higher cognitive presence.

ocial presence has also been linkedto student retention and intention to reenroll in online course rates

five integrated elements:affective association, community cohesion, instructor involvement,interaction intensity, and knowledge and experience. Examining theconcept of social presence through this lens allows us to understand howthese elements relate to satisfactory online experiences

One way in which students report experiencing the social presenceof an instructor is the immediacy of response and type of feedbackreceived

who determine the five most important elements of social presenceto be social respect, social sharing, open mind, social identity, andintimacy. All these facets are areas in which video and voice can enrichonline students’ learning experience.

Social presence is increased when the class moves away frombeing purely text based and incorporates voice and video

Findings from the study indicated that emotional expression,open communication, and group cohesion were key elements in studentperceptions of teaching and learning in their online MAEd program

when there is a high level of trustbetween the instructors and students, the learning space fulfills a certainpurpose in students’ lives and increases the likelihood of learning;

only thequality of interpersonal interaction within a course relates positively andsignificantly to student grades

Their analysis revealed that social presence has asubstantial effect on learning interaction, which in turn affects learningperformance.

but with social presence havingthe most significant correlation coefficient

Instructors in online classes must take extra measures toestablish a social presence for themselves and for their students.These efforts not only increase student satisfaction with onlinecourses, but result in increased learning outcomes. Picciano (2002)found that students with higher levels of social presence performedbetter on written assignments compared to students with lowersocial presence

Presence

Be easily accessible to your students. Provide multiple regular opportunities for connectionand support via email, virtual office hours, prompt feedback, and virtual study sessions orstudent conferences

Leshed and Sengers’s research reminds us that calendars are not just tools for the management of time, but are also sites of identity work where people can project to themselves and others the density of their days and apparent ‘success’ at doing it all[26]. These seemingly innocuous artifacts can thus perpetuate deeper normative logics a

Back to the presence I suppose this is what Maha was talking about as "3rd Discourse"? 

The picnic was clearly not in the Tribble Valley as the cockerels, (roosters  as Terry says) were calling in dawn, Keith was sun-tanned in Florida, Terry was all backlit Dutch painting.

Meanwhile back at the picnic spot, Terry and Keith had turned up. It was six and seven o'clock in the morning for them and they had dropped everything to spend a little time at a picnic to chat with friends.

Marcin and I's relationship has no doubt been enriched by visiting each other's homes and countries this year, a dream for many people who have extended online personal networks and the ties which bind us I feel are profound - perhaps because of the distance.  There is a part of Poland in me now.

but the immediacy of being in a room in Krakow, from a room in Clermont Ferrand was absolute, to the extent that I was able to butt in to respond to questions from the people attending our conference..in Poland.

Then it was Maha's Birthday, why don't we sing 'Happy Birthday' I thought, - well why not?

First day in class, we had students chatting with a friend of mine working on a Ski Resort in Australia,