Martha Cleveland-Innes

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.

Social and Academic Interaction in Higher Education Contexts and the Effect on Deep Learning

The nature of interaction in higher education environments impacts not only end outcomes, but also the approach to learning itself. Using a quasi-experimental research design, this empirical study tests the impact of social and academic interaction on student approaches to learning. Findings demonstrate significant correlations between contextual variables and approaches to learning. Most importantly, Peer Interaction and Faculty Interaction have an effect on change in approach to learning over time. This demonstrates the potential of interaction in the learning context to affect not only learning outcomes, but also the way learning itself takes place.

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.

Affective Learning Outcomes in Workplace Training: A Test of Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Online Learning Environments

Research employing an experimental design pilot-tested two delivery platforms, WebCT ™ and vClass ™, for the generation of affective learning outcomes in the workplace. Using a sample of volunteer participants in the help-desk industry, participants were randomly assigned to one of the two types of delivery software. Thirty-eight subjects participated from 10 different corporations across Western Canada. Course-delivery observations suggested greater engagement and more interaction among participants in the WebCT ™ group. Exam scores showed a higher mean for the WebCT ™ group, but differences between means were not statistically significant.

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.