A Framework for Establishing Social Presence Through the Combination of AI-generated Text with Human-created Video

So much depends on online course participants’ ability to communicate in ways so that others can perceive their personalities and know that they are real people. However, the line between the real and the artificial has been blurred with the rise of generative AI and guidance is needed for integrating generative AI into online learning without harming the sense of presence and community that students rely on. Building on previous research conducted by us and others for more than a decade on asynchronous video communication, we argue that establishing social presence using asynchronous video is especially important when teaching and learning with generative AI. In this article, we discuss generative AI’s potential impact on online instructors and students’ social presence. We then share a framework for strategically combining AI-generated text and instructor- and student-created video communication to strengthen social presence in online learning environments.