Effects of teaching presence on learning engagement in online courses

Teaching presence has the potential to influence learning engagement. But the specific role of teaching presence in learning engagement is yet to be explored. Hence, I surveyed 1,328 college students in China through an online questionnaire. The structural equation modeling analysis result indicates that the five dimensions of teaching presence (i.e., design and organization, discourse facilitation, direct instruction, assessment, and technological support) accounted for 45.3% of behavioral engagement, 34.3% of cognitive engagement, and 40.9% of emotional engagement. Specifically, assessment and technological support demonstrated a significantly positive correlation with behavioral engagement, while direct instruction demonstrated a significantly negative correlation with it. Design and organization, assessment, and technological support demonstrated significantly positive correlations with cognitive engagement. Direct instruction and technological support had significant positive correlations with emotional engagement. The results indicate that different dimensions of teaching presence have different effects on students' learning engagement.