EFG - 11

Online learning is becoming more and more the norm within the world of education, partly accelerated by COVID-19. Although independence from time and place is achieved, it is at the same time more difficult to support the learning process because of transactional distance (Moore, 1993) and of social distancing (Trope & Lieberman, 2011) which give a feeling of isolation with negative consequences for social interaction and thus on social learning. Social presence as the degree towhich the other person is perceived as ‘real’ in communication seems to overcome these adverse effects of electronic communication (Kreijns et al., 2021; Kreijns et al., 2018). In other words, social presence is about the 'transportation' of the other person to you. It is therefore important to explore necessary degrees of social presence (Weidlich et al., in press) and effects of social presence perceptions on online (social) learning processes and its regulation (Vrieling-Teunter et al., 2022).

Future learning environments increasingly use virtual- and augmented reality thereby expanding the role of telepresence more prominent alongside social presence. Telepresence refers to a set of technologies that allow a person to feel present in a distant place (Beck et al., 2013). It refers to the "transportation" of oneself to another (virtual) environment. However, it is unclear how the role of telepresence alongside social presence in online (social) learning is and how both presences reinforce each other.

Our EFG focuses on how perceptions of social- and telepresence are fostered in virtual learning environments (technological and social) and how these perceptions affect online (social) learning and its regulation. The extra funding will allow us to deepen our ongoing research in the field of social learning and strengthen our international relationships in this area. Ultimately, this collaboration will result in a new EARLI SIG community.