Design-Based Approach for the Implementation of an International Cyberlearning Community of Inquiry for Medical Education

This chapter describes the conceptualization and implementation of a cyberlearning environment as a community of inquiry (CoI). This environment includes 13 medical schools from Sub-Saharan Africa and their 50-plus partners from around the world. The theoretical foundations of Communities of Inquiry provided the framework that drove the design of the web-based platform used in this project. Through an emphasis on learning from conversations, the resulting cyberlearning environment was designed to foster engagement among faculty, staff, and students of the 13 medical schools and their partners. Recognizing that generating a virtual community of inquiry framed around the cognitive, social, and teaching presence is no easy task, the approach taken for the design was based on conceptualizing the development of such a community along a continuum that addressed the depth of interaction for each presence. This type of design assumes a phased-in implementation. The chapter describes this conceptualization by addressing the core communication strategy used, which underlies the interactions to support learning from conversations. In addition, the chapter addresses key environmental constraints and how these constraints guided operational decisions during implementation. In addition, the chapter discusses challenges and solutions, as well as lessons learned.

Through the Looking Glass

This chapter explores how emerging technologies may challenge the CoI framework to evolve and account for new types of learner and instructor interactions. An exploration of processes inherent within the three presences is contextualized against the architecture of learning management systems, with attention given to those elements that are most likely to be impacted moving forward. As examples, innovations in digital publishing, multi-screen, multi-user virtual environments, on-demand education, adaptive learning environments and analytics are discussed, with a focus on how advancements in these areas may require rethinking and realignment of some aspects of the CoI framework.

Fostering Social Presence in a Blended Learning Faculty Development Institute

To help faculty develop well-designed blended courses, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) was used to design and deliver a ten-week Hybrid Course Development Institute (HCDI) for faculty members from a variety of disciplines. The faculty experienced a blended format and developed courses based on the three components of the CoI framework: cognitive presence, teaching presence, and social presence, the last of which is particularly challenging to achieve. This chapter provides an overview of the HCDI structure, content, and assessment, and suggests ways to foster social presence in and beyond a blended learning institute for faculty members.

Effective Teaching Practices to Foster Vibrant Communities of Inquiry in Synchronous Online Learning

For the past decade, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework has been validated and applied to asynchronous online learning. This chapter proposes to explore its innovative application to synchronous online learning which has to date received little attention in the literature. This chapter reports on effective ways to engage graduate students attending virtual seminars in real time, based on the findings of a qualitative doctoral study that took place in five Francophone and Anglophone North American universities. The crucial role of the faculty member as the facilitator of a rich and ongoing dialogue in the classroom has yet to be identified with, and embraced by faculty, but students are generally satisfied with their virtual graduate seminars.

A Follow-Up Study of the Indicators of Teaching Presence Critical to Students in Online Courses

The purpose of the study presented in this chapter was to examine students’ perceptions of the importance of various indicators of teaching presence for their success in online courses. A cross-sectional survey design was used to identify the indicators that students perceived to be most important and to determine whether there were potential differences between graduate students and undergraduate students in terms of the students’ perceptions. Although the indicators that students rated as most important were similar for both groups of students, there were statistically significant differences for a few of the indicators. Students’ comments suggested additional indicators and provided insights about the importance of dispositions in online courses.

Expanding the CoI

This chapter explores how the foundational principles of the Community of Inquiry survey can be used to assess and evaluate parallel processes for Knowledge Workers, given that online teaching and learning is quite similar to “online working.” The phenomenon analogous to teaching presence in online learning is a knowledge worker’s ability to create and disseminate knowledge. Communities of Practice provide a measurable phenomenon analogous to social presence. Finally, data-driven decision-making’s use for evaluation, coupled with innovation, serves as a phenomenon parallel to cognitive presence. Together, these three measures, developed in parallel with teaching, social and cognitive presence, provide an effective framework for evaluating online work, which is quite similar to online learning.

Let’s Enhance Learners’ Cultural Discussions

This chapter reports on a study that examined the construction of a community of inquiry in a blended, foreign language, undergraduate, lower-level course. Students’ asynchronous discussions were analyzed by applying the social presence coding scheme developed by Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, and Archer (2001), by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s (2001) practical inquiry model, and Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archer’s (2001) teaching presence code. The results indicate that undergraduate students were able to create an environment that encouraged reflection and meaningful interactions in online discussions. The blended environment, however, promoted different types of social interactions than those previously found in exclusively online discussions, with a lower presence of cohesive and affective indicators. At the cognitive level, this study suggests that while maintaining restrained intervention, a more active instructor presence is needed for entry-level learners to move to a higher level of cognitive activity — one which allows them to integrate concepts and move beyond simple description of concepts and ideas. In terms of teaching presence, the initial instructional design allowed learners to engage in similar interactions to those developed specifically for the online medium; yet, the author also found that the instructor’s presence is required for the best educational outcomes.

Relationship between Types of Question Prompts and Critical Thinking in Online Discussions

This chapter addresses the relationship between types of initial question prompts and the levels of critical thinking demonstrated by students’ responses in online discussions. The chapter is framed around a research study involving discussion prompts that were coded and classified using Andrews’ typology (1980). Students’ responses (n=1132), taken from 27 discussion forums, were coded using the four-stage Practical Inquiry Model (PIM) (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2001). Among the nine question types explored, Critical Incident questions were most effective in generating high levels of student thinking. This was followed by Lower Divergent, Shotgun, and Analytical Convergent question responses that mainly resulted in students achieving the Integration phase of the PIM. Moreover, validation of the discussion prompts provides an updated typology that categorizes question prompts based on the verbal structure of online discussions. This chapter provides important implications for instructors who teach online, especially those looking for general guidelines regarding how to structure discussion prompts to elicit high quality student responses.

Coaching for Cognitive Presence

This chapter presents a coaching approach to promote higher-order discussion skills in synchronous chats. Combining the Community of Inquiry framework with elements of the Co-Active Coaching Model has resulted in a guide for coaching interventions and discussion outcomes. The approach separates the discussion process coach’s role from that of the course instructor and complements the instructional work of the class. Learners have an opportunity to improve their performance in a voluntary advising relationship that promotes action, learning, and accountability.

Pedagogical Requirements in a University-Context Characterized by Online and Blended Courses

This research was undertaken in fifteen Canadian universities, using interviews of higher education teaching center managers and IT specialists, all of them having university-teaching backgrounds. The study concerned the ramifications to teaching requirements as university education shifts into the digital era. The research was predicated upon the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000). In the light of this theoretical framework, the results demonstrated the importance of the elements of the framework: teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence. Interestingly, in the responses collected, the frequency of some indicators over others, such as information exchange, discussion, and collaboration, led to the conclusion that some categories, such as group cohesion, should be given a greater consideration in the CoI framework and, therefore, should be given more weight toward the pedagogical requirements for online/blended teaching and learning.