Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Online Courses Based on the Community of Inquiry Model

Abstract

The purpose of the study, in order to improve the courses presented in online environments based on Community of Inquiry, is to investigate relations among the Community of Inquiry' presences (teaching, social and cognitive), learners' characteristics (e.g. gender, age, occupational status, and the type of registered program), "e-readiness and expectations", and satisfaction by using the structural equation model. The study group consisted of 714 students enrolled in distance education programs. Three data collection tools were used to collect data. The findings revealed that "the presence of the students was at a moderate level, teaching and social presence had a significant positive effect of on cognitive presence, the level of presence did not vary based on the variables of demographic and discipline, the e-presence and expectation levels had a low impact on presence levels, and the level of presence had a significantly high impact on satisfaction." The findings also indicated that the online courses examined in this study were found to be sufficient by students in forming a community of inquiry. However, it also revealed that certain aspects of the courses should be improved. Therefore, it could be concluded that there is a need for more social, more active and engaging learning activities that enable students to think critically in an online environment.

Designing an emotional presence in virtual education

“…The results of this research are in line with the results of Robinson, Rourke, Kanuka (2009), Akyol, Garrison (2011), Garrison (2017), Yildirim, Seferoğlu (2021), Tuulikki (2021), (You et al 2014). Cleveland-Ines and Campbell, 2012;Stanbum et al, 2014 Cleveland-Ines andCampbell, 2012;Stanbum et al, 2014;Sajnani, Mayor, Tillberg 2020, Arndt, 2012…”

Integrating cognitive presence strategies: A professional development training for K-12 teachers

“…Maintaining and developing SP is considered integral to the establishment of collaboration and critical discourse (Garrison & Anderson, 2003) to leverage the quality of critical thinking in a learning community. SP has a crucial role in the development of CP (Akyol, 2009) through the construction of new information with community members (Picciano, 2002), sharing and exchanging ideas, as well as receiving the support of peers (Yildirim & Seferoglu, 2021). Dewey placed inquiry and community at the forefront of his philosophy and postulated that the latter was fundamental to individual development (Swan et al, 2009).…”

Disciplinary differences and emotional presence in communities of inquiry: Teachers’ expressions of digital technology-enabled teaching

“…According to recent reviews on the CoI, there is a need to expand the settings in which the CoI instrument is applied [62]. As most CoI research has been conducted in social science settings, there is a need to expand to other academic disciplines to further study how disciplinary differences might affect the CoI [63,64], and specifically features "can be investigated further by separating the programs by types of disciplines (hard or soft, pure or applied)" ( [65], p. 159). Further, Olpak [63] notes that most studies were conducted on higher education learners and within a North American cultural context.…”