An Inquiry Into Relationships Between Demographic Factors and Teaching, Social, and Cognitive Presence

• In Event: Online Teaching and Learning: Community of Inquiry Research

Abstract

One third of all college students leave their institution after the first year. As rapid growth continues at online institutions of higher education it is vital to acquire understanding of factors contributing to student success and therefore impacting persistence and matriculation. The Community of Inquiry framework includes three presences, teaching, cognitive, and social, designed to assess the educational experience of the online learner. Over 113,000 cases from a large national fully online university were examined to determine if student characteristics, e.g., student gender, ethnicity, and age, are a factor in the level of the three presences. Multiple semester sessions were analyzed across curricular areas. Contrary to the literature, very little variance in student demographic characteristics was revealed in the results.

Authors

• Angela M. Gibson, American Public University System

• Phil Ice, American Public University System

• Rob Mitchell, American Public University System

• Lori Kupczynski, Texas A&M University - Kingsville