Terry Anderson, a professor and Canada Research Chair in Distance Education at Athabasca University, discusses a recent study of a Coursera MOOC that concluded that teacher presence had no significant relation to course completion, the most badges awarded, an intent to register in subsequent MOOCs, or course satisfaction. Anderson suggests that this finding in line with his Interaction Equivalency Theory, which states that “if one of the three forms of student interaction (student-student, student-teacher, student-content) is at a high level, the other two can be reduced or even eliminated.” He concluded that the study showed that the “student-teacher interaction was morphed into student-content interaction through the digital videos.” Furthermore, he states that the study showed student-student interaction increased when there was no teacher interaction. “This interaction was both stimulated and supported by the students themselves.”
http://terrya.edublogs.org/2014/03/13/does-teaching-presence-matter-in-a-mooc/