Abstracts - Earli

members of this knowledge building community stays over all these phases. This research istheoretically and educationally very important. It demonstrates that under favourable conditionsvery long term collaborative knowledge building can be created to promote school developmentand teachers’ professional development. New creative ways to use earlier research methods toanalyse collaborative knowledge building, were created.Feeling affectively connected in computer mediated communication: a proposal of dimensions tocapture the relevance of social presence for effective learning in online discussionsRosa Colomina, University of Barcelona, SpainMaria Jose Rochera, University of Barcelona, SpainMila Naranjo, University of Barcelona, SpainAna Remesal, University of Barcelona, SpainRosa Mayordomo, University of Barcelona, SpainThe purpose of this paper is to present a study about social presence. The social presence has beenidentified in different previous studies as an essential element for the understanding of knowledgeconstruction processes in virtual environments. Yet, these studies also have shown the difficulty oftackling the study of social presence, both from a theoretical and from a methodological point ofview. Our study grounds on a socioconstructivist perspective, which emphasises the importance ofthe educational intervention in teaching and learning processes. We intend to analyse some aspectsrelated with the way in which social presence allows the participants to increase themeaningfulness of the learning process. We analyse the postings to a virtual forum by one teacherand 17 freshmen, using the platform Moodle, in a blended course of Educational Psychology in aSchool of Teacher Education. The work consists of the elaboration and interpretation of differentdimensions and units of analysis based on a content analysis in order to identify aspects of socialpresence of the participants and its evolution along the on-line discussion. The results allow us toidentify different types and levels of participation in online discussions related with socialpresence. The results show a characterisation of different aspects of social presence which allowsus to draw profiles and patterns, which contribute to the understanding of the sense that theparticipants attribute to the learning task and their reactions in front of difficulties andadvancements, as well as their contributions to the creation of a positive social climate for workingtogether. From this socioconstructivist perspective, our results show empirical evidence whichallows us to advance in the understanding of the role of the affective and emotional elements invirtual learning environments.– 854 –