Being a supportive presence in online courses: attending to students' online presence with each other.

As a teacher involved in distance education, being a supportive presence includes attending to and facilitating students' knowing and connecting with other. This creates places for learning that are safe, fair, and respectful, which reflects the concerns of the interpretive pedagogies (Diekelmann & Diekelmann, in press). Reflecting a larger issue is the importance of contemporary nurses' knowing and connecting with other team members, and with patients, online in ways that engender community and achieve desired outcomes. With this in mind, attending to the Concernful Practices that enable students to know and connect in ways other than face-to-face encounters becomes even more relevant in preparing for today's practice environments.