Luka Ngoyi

Effective online learning practices should incorporate an active social presence that provides space and technological support for students and instructors to engage in social activities, which are an integral part of the learning process. The focus of this chapter is the description of social presence, the forms in which it occurs, and how social presence enhances student engagement in the learning process, whether online or face-to-face. Based on various studies related to this topic, the authors argue that social presence has a significant impact on student engagement, especially in online classes. Finally, this chapter examines how social presence affects student engagement and offers various strategies for instructors to enhance social presence and student engagement in online learning.

Technology is ubiquitous, embracing almost every part of our lives, our communities and our homes. In the field of education technology doesn’t have a secondary role in the sole process of knowledge transferring especially because technology is becoming increasingly integrated into the lives of learners of all ages and groups. In particular of this technology is the use of Facebook as an education tool. Originally designed for college students in the United States in 2004, Facebook was created as a social networking website. Facebook later expanded to different educational settings. Facebook allows each user to create a profile, updating it with personal information such as home address, mobile phone number, interesting religious views and also allows people to form groups and post pictures. Today with approximately 800 million subscribers worldwide (according to www.internetworldstats.com), Facebook now has a diverse community of users at all levels of education and areas of societ...