Adapting the Community of Inquiry Survey for an Online Graduate Program: Implications for Online Programs

Abstract

A cohort-based online professional doctorate program that consisted of both online coursework and research activities was designed using Garrison et al's community of inquiry (CoI) framework. The evaluation of the program proved a challenge because all existing CoI assessment methods in the past have dealt with online courses, not with online programs. In the absence of a validated instrument for measuring the success of the community of inquiry design at a program level, the CoI survey for online courses was adapted and used with the second cohort of online students (n = 18). This article presents (a) an extension of the construct's cognitive, teaching, and social presence for online programs, and (b) an instrument to measure student perceptions of a CoI that encompasses asynchronous and synchronous interactions, as well as course-specific and non-course-specific interactions in different learning spaces.

Students’ Perceptions of an Online Graduate Program in Special Education for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

“…This could be another aspect to address in the future when considering how to build and foster a sense of community in online programs. Kumar and Ritzhaupt (2014) noted a significant increase in social presence between the first year and second year within their cohort, which relates to Cleveland-Innes, Garrison, and Kinsel's (2007) conclusion that it takes time to develop a sense of community within a program. As the majority of the participants in the study were early in the program (only completed between one and five courses), this may have contributed to lower rating in this area.…”

“…As more online programs in the area of teacher education have been created, the need to develop multi-faceted evaluation methodologies and processes to determine the effectiveness of online degree programs has also increased (Dobbs & Allen, 2004). In the past, attention has primarily been given to the quality of individual online courses or specific components of online courses (e.g., discussion board, community of learners), but much less is known about the quality and characteristics of online degree programs as a whole (Chapman, 2006; Kumar & Ritzhaupt, 2014), specifically in the area of special education teacher preparation. Some research has evaluated components of online doctoral programs (Bolliger & Halupa, 2012), but the research at the master’s level is scant.…”

Social Presence Theory: Relevance for HRD/VHRD Research and Practice

“…As mentioned in the previous section, social presence is one of the three core elements of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework along with teacher presence and cognitive presence (Swan & Richardson, 2017). The CoI framework is widely used to design and evaluate online learning (Kumar & Ritzhaupt, 2014; Swan, Day, Bogle, & Matthews, 2014). Within this framework, social presence is defined in terms of learners’ perceptions of peers and the communication behaviors they demonstrate in an online learning environment (Swan & Richardson, 2017).…”

Humanizing advanced communication online writing instruction: developing social presence to communicate, collaborate, and connect

“…In the area of online instruction (generally) and online writing instruction (specifically) distance-learning scholars both inside (Warnock 2015 and outside of composition (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer 2010;Kumar & Ritzhaupt, 2014) have discussed the problems of transactional distance in online courses and suggested strategies for creating a Community of Inquiry (COI) framework which includes teaching, social, and cognitive presences. First, transactional distance theory, developed by Michael G. Moore (2013), addresses the unique conditions of online learning environments, in which "transaction in distance education is the interplay of teachers and learners in environments that have the special characteristic of their being spatially [i.e.…”

“…The Community of Inquiry Framework was developed to address the problem of the transactional distance, which occurs when communication facilitated through the interface creates geographical, emotional or psychological distance among the participants (Moore & Kearsley, 2012;Garrison, Anderson, and Archer 2010;Kumar and Ritzhaupt, 2014). Transactional Distance is comprised of three key variables: Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2010) address each of these variables by establishing a type of "presence" found within the online learning environment (OLE).…”