Exploring the Reliability and Validity of the PSCP Social Presence Scale

This study describes the development and validation of the PSCP Social Presence Scale , created to assess students’ perceived social presence in learning environments. The scale was tested with 446 pre-degree university students studying English as a foreign language. A pilot study with 117 students was first conducted to examine item performance and explore the preliminary factor structure. A second study with 329 students was subsequently conducted to confirm this structure. The final version of the scale includes nine items organized into two factors— Social Interaction and Social Connectedness . The findings suggest strong evidence of content (S-CVI = .96), convergent, and construct validity (CFA fit indices: χ 2 /df = 2.3, RMSEA = .06, SRMR = .03, CFI = .98, TLI = .97), and the reliability analyses indicate high internal consistency (α = .91) for the overall instrument. Overall, the findings support the PSCP Social Presence Scale as a valid and reliable measure of social presence for use in educational research.