Content area
Abstract
Immediacy behaviours are a particular type of instructor communication behaviour which increase psychological closeness between an instructor and students (Mehrabian, 1967). Interest in immediacy behaviours originated in physical classrooms (Anderson, 1979; Gorham, 1988). The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to determine whether these traditional immediacy behaviours would occur in online learning, and if so, to examine their effects on student learning experience. Evidence of verbal immediacy was observed in the instructor-student interactions throughout an online graphic design course. These behaviours were related to student participation behaviours and their levels of perceived affective and cognitive learning. This research extended verbal immediacy by proposing two new behaviours, instructor encouragement and use of a shared vocabulary with students. A set of initial guidelines based on the research is also provided for online instructors and students considering online learning.
