Abstract:
This paper employs storying and self-reports to examine the role of emotionality as it relates to social presence and learning online. It examines the links between social presence and the social support provided by family, friends and the wider community and the way these contribute to identity which is seen as always changing, always in process, multiple, and contradictory. Of particular interest is the importance of the bios in facilitating or impeding student learning, the fears and reservations students have about building relationships and working online, the ways in which family support can complicate and interfere with learning, the emotional labour required of the learner to maintain family and social relationships, the influence of social and academic capital, the effect of emotionality on work performance, and the role of the tutor in assisting students toward what Ting-Toomey (in Weber, 2005) has called 'mindful identity negotiation'.