Building Presence in Unscripted Spaces

By William Ashley Johnson

This post explores how one instructor’s intentionally branded “after show” provides a low-stakes, high-engagement space for online learners to reflect, ask questions, and connect beyond the constraints of a live seminar. Blending autonomy-supportive design with research-backed student engagement strategies, Talk Seminar isn’t just office hours by another name—it’s a reimagined pedagogical space. With cultural cues from TV after shows and student-centered teaching theory alike, this piece argues that what happens after class might be where the real learning begins.

Talk Seminar wasn’t something that happened accidentally—it was designed. I wanted a post-seminar space that wasn’t just Q&A, but something with a little more atmosphere. So I branded it The After Show. Think The Talking Dead, but for comma splices and source integration. What Chris Hardwick is to walkers, I try to be for Unit 8 APA formatting.

The idea was simple: take the energy of the live seminar and create a spillover space where the pressure dropped, the mics stayed on, and the learning could loosen up a little. And it worked. Across four course sections, Talk Seminar sessions averaged between seven and ten students per week, with as many as five or more questions addressed each time. Students didn’t just show up—they engaged. In an anonymous end-of-term survey, every participant reported increased confidence or clarity, and nearly all were “very satisfied.”

Figure 1

Note. Internal course marketing for Talk Seminar.

These results echo what Prananto et al. (2025) describe as the power of perceived teacher support, and what Yang et al. (2022) call “autonomy-supportive teaching”: the kind that invites student voice, reduces pressure, and extends choice (p. 3). In short, Talk Seminar doesn’t exist outside the learning—it’s part of the story arc. The seminar is the main episode; the after show is where things get real.

The Talk Seminar “after show” runs about 15–20 minutes after our weekly live class ends. Cameras on or off. Pajamas encouraged. Students aren’t required to be there, but the framing—the name, the poster, the whole talk-show aura—makes it feel like something they might want to check out. There’s no official slide deck. I open the floor. Sometimes it’s clarification, sometimes it’s “Can you show me again how to fix that quote?” But sometimes, it’s a student just sitting in digital silence until someone says, “This class isn’t like my others.”

And that’s the moment. That’s when we’re no longer just “covering material.” We’re building the kind of academic community that sticks. I host it like I imagine a great podcast host would: a little prep, a lot of listening, and a clear sense that what happens here is worth staying for.

We’ve all lingered after class to answer questions. That’s not new. But packaging it—naming it, framing it, extending it into something familiar yet reimagined—that makes a difference. Students recognized that difference, too. They didn’t see it as bonus time; they saw it as space that belonged to them.

Across four sections in the 2023–2024 academic year, I tracked attendance, topics raised, and the number of questions or issues addressed. Some sections averaged more than ten attendees and five questions per session. My own internal pilot data aligned with national findings: students engage more deeply when they perceive both academic support (Prananto et al., 2025) and autonomy (Yang et al., 2022). These sessions created a space where students could step into both—choosing to show up, asking what they wanted, and finding support that didn’t feel obligatory or performative.

Student feedback made that even clearer. One student shared, “I felt like I could finally ask the ‘dumb’ questions I was too nervous to say in front of the whole group” (student survey respondent, personal communication, April 8, 2024). Another said, “This was the only time in any of my classes I actually felt seen” (student survey respondent, personal communication, April 8, 2024). These weren’t isolated comments—they pointed to a pattern. Confidence went up. Clarity deepened. Engagement took on a different tone.

In teaching, the act of naming is also an act of framing. When we call something a “quiz,” it signals assessment. When we call something a “conversation,” it invites participation. By calling this an “after show,” I wanted to flip expectations—to take what might feel like academic leftovers and turn them into something students would anticipate.

The framing works because it feels familiar. Students know what an “after show” is—it’s where the real talk happens. The behind-the-scenes. The unscripted part. It builds in space for vulnerability, laughter, repetition, and rethinking. Naming something often gives it permission to matter.

In an age where artificial intelligence can churn out thesis statements in under a second, students crave spaces where learning feels human. Talk Seminar resists automation. It creates moments where follow-up questions, clarifying metaphors, or collective laughter remind us that understanding isn’t transactional—it’s relational. These conversations, unscripted and slightly messy, are where confidence is rehearsed and clarity is earned.

And in asynchronous-heavy, adult-centered online programs, students often feel like they’re just moving through a system. The after show reminds them—and me—that there’s a person behind the syllabus, a voice behind the slides, a pause button between performance and reflection. It slows the rhythm of the week just enough to create presence.

Talk Seminar isn’t fluff. It’s not bells and whistles or extra credit. It’s a purposefully built, research-backed, student-centered space that meets learners where they are—after the slides are done and the grades are off the table. It’s office hours rebranded, reframed, and reimagined as a place where trust, questions, and insight feel more possible.

We talk a lot about engagement, presence, and belonging in online classrooms. I’d argue that what we really need are more spaces that don’t require participation but still invite it. That’s what the after show is for.

If you’re already hanging around after seminar to answer questions, you’re halfway there. Give it a name. Build a vibe. Call it “The After Show” if you like (no trademark pending). But whatever you call it, know that even a few extra minutes of informal space might be where your students find the clarity—or confidence—they were looking for all along.

References

Prananto, A., Putri, R. N. A., & Kusumawardani, S. S. (2025). Perceived teacher support and student engagement in online learning during COVID-19. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 6, 100241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2025.100241

Yang, D., Chen, P., Wang, H., Wang, K., & Huang, R. (2022). Teachers’ autonomy support and student engagement: A systematic literature review of longitudinal studies. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 925955. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.925955