Best Pedagogical Practices for Online Instructor Emotional Presence

Online education is challenged within pedagogical, technological, and andragogical realms. Many online students feel isolated and disconnected, which negatively affects their learning experience online. Educational frameworks support learner perception as a vital element in the experience of learning. Learner emotion, motivation, attitude, and ability to learn are influenced by instructor ability to connect and convey emotional presence. An online educator can use emotional presence in online learning environments to decrease learner isolation and the perceived student-instructor distance and proximity. This exploratory literature identifies practices that enhance online instructor pedagogy in online learning environments. Theme curation was implemented to critically analyze, interpret, and reorganize existing information. This analytic evaluation of emotional presence yielded practical insights, strategies, and measurement tools into the various aspects of emotional presence. The analytical article findings allowed for the creation of the Best Pedagogical Practices for Emotional Presence Assessment Tool (BPP-EPAT), a guide for online instructors that that supports best pedagogical practices as they relate to emotional presence. The BPP-EPAT supports the momentum of educational epistemology and the evolving 21st-century learner, and can be used to support the development of nursing educator knowledge around evidence-based online teaching practices.