Teaching Presence and Time Management in the Virtual Classroom: The UOC’s model

Abstract

One of the most important conceptual pillars that make up the educational model of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) — as recognized in the organic document that develops it — is the "teaching presence". The notion of teaching presence, along with both cognitive and social presence, are the structural basis of the educational scenario known as e-learning, as assumed by the UOC. These concepts are not merely theoretical constructs. Properly focused, they can provide indicators to develop tools for assessing some aspects of virtual classroom organization and designing educational activities, including those involving the teacher’s effective time management.

Starting from an analysis of the components of teaching presence — along with some theoretical developments concerning the notion of time in online education— this paper aims to look at the concepts that have implications on the improvement of these activities, so they can be subsequently included in the development of evaluation scales.