The Influence of Social Presence in Online Classes Using Virtual Conferencing: Relationships between Group Cohesion, Group Efficacy, and Academic Performance

One of the important issues that computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) and human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers want to solve through cooperative system design is the improvement of performance. The same is true for virtual learning environments. The role and importance of technology in education have increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the need to explore factors that influence social and academic efficacy in virtual environments has increased based on the explosion in online virtual teaching environments and virtual conference apps. Based on the theoretical description of group cohesion for the purpose of enhancing further collaboration, this paper asks what role group cohesion plays and how significant it is to group efficacy and performance in virtual learning environments, and also whether a sense of social presence in a virtual learning environment plays a significant role in optimizing group cohesion and, thus, group performance. Experimental studies were conducted on a total of 121 people consisting of 35 virtual learning groups. Results show that a sense of social presence has a positive effect on group efficacy, and that the adjustment effect of social presence has significant positive effects on group cohesion and group efficacy. This study provides a theoretical and empirical basis for the design of methods that can maximize positive effects in support of group learning and collaboration in virtual learning environments.