Presence and Learning in a Community of Inquiry

• In Event: Social Presence in Online Learning: Extending the Research Conversation on Definitions, Learning, Conflict, Identity, and Othering

Abstract

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) is a theoretical framework for the optimal design of online learning environments to support critical thinking, critical inquiry, and discourse among students and teachers (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000). The CoI suggests social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence are essential elements to foster successful educational experiences in computer-mediated distance learning environments. While thousands of CoI-based articles have been published, those critical of the framework and related research suggest a lack of empirical evidence to support the framework’s central claim that fostering learners’ social, teaching, and cognitive presence within a CoI leads to deep and meaningful learning outcomes (Annand, 2011; Rourke & Kanuka, 2009).

The current study conducted with 51 graduate students in five distance education courses, compared student responses to a CoI perception survey with student-perceived learning and satisfaction, as well as three instructor-assessed learning achievement measures. While student-perceived learning was significantly positively correlated with the students’ course satisfaction and perceptions of their participation within the CoI, no relationship was found between the CoI composite social, teaching, and cognitive presence measure from the student perception survey and any of the three instructor-assessed learning achievement measures.

This study's findings further the assertion by Rourke and Kanuka (2009) that research has not offered sufficient evidence that presence as conceptualized within the CoI framework (i.e., the independent variable) leads to learning achievement (i.e., the dependent variable). Without this evidence, the value of the CoI framework as an educational process model to affect learning outcomes remains challenged.

In addition, the lack of significant correlation between student-perceived learning and the instructor-assessed measures of achievement is important to not only this study, but also to the interpretation of previous CoI studies using student-perceived learning as the sole learning outcome measure. The present study is consistent with prior research that suggested student self-reports of learning are not substitutes for objective measures of achievement (Gonyea, 2005; Mabe & West, 1982; Pike, 1996), and challenges studies that relied on student self-reports of learning as a measure of learning outcome (Akyol, Vaughan, & Garrison, 2011; Arbaugh, 2008; Richardson & Swan, 2003; Rovai, 2002; Shea et al., 2006; Shin, 2003).

Further, the strong relationship found between student-perceived learning and satisfaction supports findings that self-reports of academic achievement were related to student attitude toward the course (Pohlmann & Beggs, 1974). Likewise, the positive correlation between each of the cognitive, teaching, and social presence subscales and student satisfaction support to the argument that student interactions with the instructor and other students are more likely to affect attitude and course satisfaction measures than achievement measures (Bernard et al., 2009). Overall, this study’s findings support the calls for further research to examine which interaction conditions, and what level of interaction intensity, contribute to student achievement in distance learning (Abrami et al., 2011; Anderson, 2003; Annand, 2011; Bernard et al., 2009).

Authors

• Jennifer Maddrell, Designers for Learning

• Gary R. Morrison, Old Dominion University

• Ginger S. Watson, University of Virginia