Interactivity during Covid-19: mediation of learner interactions on social presence and expected learning outcome within videoconference EFL courses

Social presence in education pertains to the connectedness students have with one another and is highly indicative of course satisfaction and performance. Further, social presence fosters motivation and promotes opportunities for collaboration, therefore, considered a critical factor in influencing second language acquisition. In the context of emergency remote online courses due to Covid-19, this study investigates the role of social presence in relation to learner interactions and learning outcome beliefs. To this end, this research is interested in learning how social presence influences learner-learner, learner-instructor, and learner-content interactions within videoconference-supported EFL classes. This study also identifies the mediating effects learner interactions have on the relationship between social presence and expected learning outcomes. This cross-sectional questionnaire study surveyed 547 South Korean university EFL students and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to measure direct and indirect relationships among the variables of interest. The findings indicate that students’ levels of social presence positively influenced rates of interactions with their classmates, the instructor, and course content. Results further provide insight pertaining to the academic achievement students expect when participating in videoconferencing courses, and how this relationship between social presence and academic learning outcome is distinctly mediated by learner-instructor and learner-content interactions. Findings give insight into the sorts of activities and practices instructors can employ; for instance, EFL instructors are recommended to clearly assess learner-learner interactions if such interactions are to have a significant influence on course outcome beliefs when using videoconferencing tools effectively in the post Covid-19 era.