Social Presence as a Full Mediator Between Online Interaction and Satisfaction: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

https://doi.org/10.9743/JEO.2024.21.4.7

Abstract

A mediation model was developed and tested through structural equation modeling, explicating the relationships among student interaction, social presence (perceiving others as “real” in an online environment), and student satisfaction with online learning in counselor education, with a national sample of 378 participants enrolled in U.S. counseling programs. This mediation model rendered an explanation for how student interaction related to student satisfaction through social presence. To be specific, social presence fully mediated the relationship between student interaction and student satisfaction: (a) there was a statistically significant positive relationship between student interaction and social presence (β = .492, p < .001); (b) there was a significant relationship between social presence and student satisfaction (β = .712, p < .001); and (c) there was a significant relationship between student interaction and student satisfaction (β = .301, p < .001), but this relationship became nonsignificant and substantially reduced in magnitude (β = −.049, p = .283) when social presence was added to the model, indicating a full mediation model effect. Implications for online counselor education, telesupervision, and future research are provided.

Keywords: social presence, student interaction, student satisfaction, online counselor education, full mediation