Internet Learning Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 16

Internet Learning Journal – Volume 4, Issue 1 – Spring 2015
Data Collection
To generate as many relevant publications as possible, the authors of this study
reviewed hard copy journals and conducted online searches through various databases. The
databases used included Academic Search Complete (Ebsco), Social Sciences Full Text
(Wilson), ProQuest Education Journals, ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis, ProQuest Central,
Social Sciences Citation Index (ISI), ERIC (Ebsco), SAGE Full Text Collection (CSA),
Google Scholar, Emerald, and SAGE. The following keywords were used: Teaching
presence, instructors’ presence, teachers’ immediacy, learners’ affective learning, cognitive
learning, learner’s motivation, online learning, virtual learning, elearning, distance
education, online training, e-training, virtual training, online class engagement, students’
satisfaction and learner engagement.
The keyword searches yielded the following journals: CyberPsychology and
Behavior, Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, Journal of Social
Issues, Journal of European Industrial Training, Journal of Organizational Behavior,
Personality and Individual Differences, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication,
Advances in Developing Human Resources, Business Horizon, AAOHN Journal, and
Applied Psychology.
The initial search resulted 3563 articles. Considering the change in technology and as
a result change in approach towards online courses, articles published within ten years (2003
to 2013) were included in the literature review. Applying the criteria, the search was
narrowed to 50 articles. After reading the abstracts, 30 articles were selected for this article.
The following criteria were used to select articles for this study:
1. Articles that discuss teaching presence or teaching immediacy and related the
concept(s) to students’ motivation.
2. Articles published within 2003 to 2014. Nevertheless, older publications are included
for concept building and to support or refute arguments presented in this paper.
3. Empirical studies that identified teaching presence and teaching immediacy as online
instructional strategies.
4. Published in peer-reviewed journals
In this article teaching presence, instructor presence and teaching immediacy/
teachers’ immediacy are used to convey the same notion.
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