I think teaching presence in distance and online education is more important than face-to-face teaching. As described in this lesson and the suggested article, teaching presence in online education depends on course design and organization, facilitation of online discourse, and well-focused direct instruction.
I believe teaching presence and community of inquiry are connected concepts. To promote a sense of community in online teaching, educators need to establish a teaching presence through designing the online course, facilitating online discourse and providing direct instruction to learners.
The first place where students get a sense of teaching presence is in the design of online course. Although in this capacity I am not totally involved in the process of planning and preparing the online course, the knowledge that I obtained after reading more about teaching presence would help me in future course design task. I think whether it is online teaching or face to face course, there are common design elements including smart learning goals and objectives, learning/teaching activities, assessment and feedback, and all should be carefully address during this process.
Facilitation of online discourse is the second part of teaching presence. I am a big fan of collaborative learning. I described in the previous post my experience in that history course. I think the success of that class was due to the effectiveness of a collaborative and efficient dialogue. From what I learned from that experience and this lesson, skillful facilitation and promoting collaboration allow students to interact with one another and the teacher at a high level. Facilitation of the discourse and collaboration should be initiated by teachers from the beginning of the course by friendly introductions and telling short stories as ice breakers (promoting social presence). Facilitation is a continuing process and is important throughout the course.
The last step in a teaching presence is the direction of cognitive and social processes. I think students will perceive the teaching presence provided by their teacher through direct instruction, online interaction and disciplinary expertise. I see a link here between these components of teaching presence with feedback as an element of cognitive presence. I think direction is not only about giving focus and structure to students but also is about providing students with choice and opportunity to take on responsibility for their education. This way we can create a true community of inquiry where everyone contributes in educational activities and learning outcomes are shared.