D. Randy Garrison

Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education

Abstract The purpose of this study is to provide conceptual order and a tool for the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and computer conferencing in supporting an educational experience. Central to the study introduced here is a model of community inquiry that constitutes three elements essential to an educational transaction—cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. Indicators (key words/phrases) for each of the three elements emerged from the analysis of computer-conferencing transcripts. The indicators described represent a template or tool for researchers to analyze written transcripts, as well as a guide to educators for the optimal use of computer conferencing as a medium to facilitate an educational transaction. This research would suggest that computer conferencing has considerable potential to create a community of inquiry for educational purposes.

Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education

Abstract This article describes a practical approach to judging the nature and quality of critical discourse in a computer conference. A model of a critical community of inquiry frames the research. A core concept in defining a community of inquiry is cognitive presence. In turn, the practical inquiry model operationalizes cognitive presence for the purpose of developing a tool to assess critical discourse and reflection. The authors present encouraging empirical findings related to an attempt to create an efficient and reliable instrument to assess the nature and quality of critical discourse and thinking in a text‐based educational context. Finally, the authors suggest that cognitive presence (i.e., critical, practical inquiry) can be created and supported in a computer‐conference environment with appropriate teaching and social presence.

Understanding cognitive presence in an online and blended community of inquiry: Assessing outcomes and processes for deep approaches to learning

This paper focuses on deep and meaningful learning approaches and outcomes associated with online and blended communities of inquiry. Applying mixed methodology for the research design, the study used transcript analysis, learning outcomes, perceived learning, satisfaction, and interviews to assess learning processes and outcomes. The findings for learning processes and outcomes indicated that students in both online and blended courses were able to reach high levels of cognitive presence and learning outcomes. The results suggest that cognitive presence in a community of inquiry is associated with perceived and actual learning outcomes. It is recommended that future research efforts focus on quantitative measures to establish links between cognitive presence and the quality of learning outcomes.

Cognitive Presence in Online Learning

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY was to advance understanding of how to facilitate higher levels of learning when using asynchronous text-based Internet communication technology. The framework used to guide this study is based on the community of inquiry model developed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000). Crucial methodological constructs congruent with this model and higher order learning were identified. They are discourse, collaboration, management, reflection, monitoring, and knowledge construction. Using a focus group interview, the results of this study reveal that these methodological constructs are consistent with, and supportive of, the facilitation of higher levels of learning in an asynchronous text-based Internet environment.

Role Adjustment for Learners in an Online Community of Inquiry: Identifying the Challenges of Incoming Online Learners

This study outlines the process of adjustment learners experience when first participating in an online environment. Findings from a pilot study of adjustment to online learning environments validate differences found in three presences in an online community of inquiry. Using pre- and post-questionnaires, students enrolled in entry-level courses in two graduate degree programs at Athabasca University, Canada, describe their adjustment to online learning. Responses were analyzed in relation to the elements of cognitive, social, and teaching presence, defined by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) as core dimensions of student role requirements in an online community of inquiry. In each of these presences, five areas of adjustment characterize the move toward competence in online learning: interaction, self-identity, instructor role, course design, and technology. Student comments provide understanding of the experience of first time online learners, including the challenges, interventions, and resolutions that present themselves as unique incidents. Recommendations for the support and facilitation of adjustment are made.

Avoiding the Industrialization of Research Universities: Big and Little Distance Education

Abstract The pressure to increase access to higher education while reducing costs raises serious questions with regard to the purpose and goals of the traditional research‐intensive university. Moreover, there is considerable rhetoric about reinventing universities based on adoption of communications and learning technologies without clearly defining or articulating educational goals. In contrast to the big industrial model of distance education, an approach to distance education is described that is consistent with the traditional goals and values of creating knowledge through a critical community of learners. This approach, or model, is labeled “little distance education,” and its characteristics are defined. Meeting the needs of a new market for continuing professional education available at a distance is also discussed.

Educational Communities of Inquiry: Theoretical Framework, Research and Practice.

Zehra Akyol is a researcher and practitioner with interest in teaching and learning online and blended learning environments. She got her PhD degree in the field of Educational Technology. She conducted her doctoral research at University of Calgary focusing community development in online and blended learning environments and the factors affecting the development of communities of inquiry in these learning environments. Recently, she is studying metacognitive development in a community of inquiry environment in relation to learning and cognition. She is a member of the community of inquiry research group and on editorial review boards of several journals in the distance education and educational technology. Zehra Akyol (Canada) and D. Randy Garrison (University of Calgary, Canada)

Using the Community of Inquiry Framework to Inform Effective Instructional Design

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model views the online learning experience as a function of the relationship between three elements: social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. The proposed panel and chapter will focus on how the CoI framework can be used to guide the design and implementation of online courses through the explication of measures verifying the CoI. In addition, factors external but influential to the model—technology, disciplinary differences, and the role of the online instructor—are reviewed.

Higher Education and Postindustrial Society: New Ideas About Teaching, Learning, and Technology

Online learning offers the opportunity to examine and rethink the teaching and learning enterprise in education broadly. Online learning can be conceived of as the new distance education, where issues such as interaction and dialogue are introduced back into the distance education model. However, regardless of education delivery mode—face-to-face, online, distance, or some combination through blended learning—teaching (and learning) is changing. Online learning, whether synchronous or asynchronous, offers a range of pedagogical practices previously unavailable in both distance and face-to-face higher education.

Thinking Collaboratively in Educational Environments: Shared Metacognition and Co-Regulation in Communities of Inquiry

Great geniuses are nurtured in rich environments. Certainly geniuses such as Newton, Darwin and Picasso were intellectually gifted and dedicated, but they did not emerge in a vacuum. Individuals of great accomplishment are immersed in the culture of their times. The idea that great thinkers and artists are solitary geniuses without being influenced intellectually by others is simply a myth. This was made evident by Isaac Newton when he stated: ‘If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.’ Perhaps the greatest scientist of all time recognised the influences on his accomplishments. It is clear that the gifted are cultivated in complex interactions with their surroundings (Montuori & Purser, 1995). This is no less true for the less gifted and goes to the core of learning from others.