Differential Impacts of Social Presence on the Behavior Modeling Approach

The continued and increasing use of online asynchronous learning (OAL) environments for training raises the question whether and to what extent behavior modeling, the most effective training method in live instruction, will prove to be effective in OAL environments. This article analyzes the effect of applying behavior modeling training in an OAL environment. Behavior modeling training can be delivered in three modes: face-to-face, videotaped, and scripted. Each behavior modeling mode expresses social presence to a different degree, which could impact both learning performance and the willingness of students to take online asynchronous training. This study reports on the effect of behavior modeling mode on these variables in an OAL environment. Nine hypotheses were proposed. Four hypotheses were supported and five were not. This research found that the face-to-face environment is not significantly more effective than an OAL environment.