No abstract

This paper presents an empirical study grounded in the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison, Anderson, Archer, 2000) and employs quantitative content analysis of student discourse and other artifacts of learning in online courses in an effort to enhance and improve the framework and offer practical implications for online education. As a theoretical framework the purpose of the widely referenced CoI model is to describe, explain, and predict learning in online environments. The current study grows out of an ongoing research agenda to understand student and faculty experiences in emerging technology mediated education systems and to make recommendations for theory and practice. The major question addressed here is whether the CoI model adequately explains effective learner behavior in fully online courses and to articulate a new conceptual element -learning presence. Results indicate that learning presence is evident in more complex learning activities that promote collaboration and is correlated with course grades.Online learning in US higher education has exploded in recent years. Studies by the US Department of Education (Parsad & Lewis, 2008) indicate that online students generated more than 12 million course enrollment in 2007-2008 with nearly thirty percent of American college students enrolled in at least one online course (Allen & Seaman, 2010). For learners who were married with dependent children that percentage rises to one in three (Staklis, 2010). Given that today's growth in distance higher education continues to be driven largely by developments

After presenting a brief overview of the key elements that underpin Etienne Wenger's communities of practice (CoP) theoretical framework, one of the most widely cited and influential conceptions of social learning, this paper reviews extant empirical work grounded in this framework to investigate online/blended learning in higher education and in professional development. The review is based on integrative research approaches, using quantitative and qualitative analysis, and includes