A community of practice shares perspectives on utilizing telepresence in doctoral education

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we (a) share perspectives from stakeholders who learn and teach in an EdD program located in the United States that utilizes telepresence for distance learning (TDL) in a synchronous, hybrid environment, (b) frame our learning as a community of practice, and (c) report affordances and challenges of this model. TDL students asserted that the telepresence option gave them choice in selecting their doctoral program and increased their social presence and ability to be perceived as real people, and all students recognized the importance of a cohesive community to offer support through technological challenges. Faculty were largely unfamiliar with utilizing telepresence in the classroom initially and acknowledged that revised pedagogies and instructional methods were essential to supporting all students in this model. TDL affords opportunities to increase equity and access in doctoral education; however, technological and logistical challenges must be remediated to ensure a successful learning environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Telepresence
• hybrid synchronous teaching
• hybrid synchronous learning
• doctoral education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We draw on Hillman and Weichman’s (2016) definition of an education desert as a geographic location where there are ‘1. Zero colleges or universities located nearby [or] 2. One community college is the only public broad-access institution nearby’ (p. 4). (See also Hillman 2016; Klasik, Blagg, and Pekor 2018; Turley 2009.)