The Effect of Online Instructors’ Immediacy and Presence on Nursing Students’ Motivation, Cognitive, and Affective Learning

The popularity of online courses has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. In the case of nursing courses, traditional face-to-face instruction has been found to be most effective. Nurses are often taught face-to-face to obtain hands-on experience and direct interaction with instructors and peers. Furthermore, in-person instruction provides a supportive environment for students to ask questions, receive immediate feedback, and establish meaningful connections. This study aims to examine whether online instructors’ immediacy and presence during COVID-19 affect nursing students’ learning motivation, cognitive learning, and affective learning. Data were collected from 206 nursing students who studied online between September 2020 and February 2022. Descriptive statistics revealed that students viewed their instructors as moderately immediate and highly present in the classroom. This resulted in fair levels of affective learning, average cognitive learning, and moderate learning motivation. In addition, the results of the regression analysis also indicate that online instructors’ immediacy and presence are closely associated with students’ learning motivation and affective learning. However, correlational analysis shows that there exists a nuanced relationship between online instructors’ immediacy and presence negatively affecting students’ affective learning. Overall, the study revealed that online instruction needs to be further developed and integrated with social and emotional aspects. Addressing the social and emotional aspects of online instruction can provide students with the support and guidance they need to succeed in an online learning environment.