Title: Community of Inquiry: Framework for Online and Blended Learning
1Community of InquiryFramework for Online and
Blended Learning
- Dr. Randy Garrison
- Dr. Norm Vaughan
2Outline
- Community
- Community of inquiry framework
- Online blended communities
- Principles guidelines
- Scenarios
- Survey results
- Research issues
3Community of Inquiry Framework
Social Presence The ability of participants in a
community of inquiry to project themselves
socially and emotionally as real people
(i.e., their full personality), through the
medium of communication being used.
Cognitive Presence The extent to which learners
are able to construct and confirm meaning
through sustained reflection and discourse in a
critical community of inquiry.
Teaching Presence The design, facilitation and
direction of cognitive and social processes for
the purpose of realizing personally meaningful
and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes.
4Community
- community means meaningful association,
association based on common interest and
endeavor. The essence of community is
communication, - (John Dewey)
5Educational Community
- we have at our disposal one of the greatest
vehicles for community building known to
humankind the one called education. - Palmer, 2002
6Inquiry
- Is problem or question driven
- Typically has a small-group feature
- Includes critical discourse
- Is frequently multi-disciplinary
- Incorporates research methods such as information
gathering and synthesis of ideas
7Community Of Inquiry
- The importance of a community of inquiry is that,
while the objective of critical reflection is
intellectual autonomy, in reality, critical
reflection is thoroughly social and communal. - Lipman, 1991
8Collaboration
- The conceptual foundation for the CoI framework
is a collaborative-constructivist approach to an
educational environment (Garrison Archer, 2000) - virtual environments are most successful when
collaboration among students is achieved (Alavi
Leidner, 2001) - Disciplined collaboration to test and confirm
personally constructed meaning is essential and
integral to a community of inquiry. - Collaborative inquiry is essential for creative
and innovative learning (Sawyer, 2006).
9Questions
- Do you agree that community is important in
higher education? Why? - What is the greatest barrier to establishing a
CoI in higher education?
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11CoI Categories/Indicators
12Cognitive Presence
- Extent to which participants critically reflect,
(re)construct meaning, and engage in discourse
for the purpose of sharing meaning and confirming
understanding.
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15Social Presence
- Social presence is defined here as the ability of
participants to project themselves socially and
emotionally within the community of learners. - Effect of medium not most salient factor
(contrary to Short, et al., 1976)
16SP Categories
- Affective Expression
- Open Communication
- Group Cohesion
17Question
- Have we placed too much emphasis on social
presence in supporting online and blended
communities of inquiry??
18Academic Community
- Learning space or social space?
- Their use of the medium was functional,
organized, time-driven, and carefully evaluated.
(Conrad, 2002) - Build community judiciously (for inquiry)
- Manage pathological politeness
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20Teaching Presence
- The design, facilitation, and direction of
cognitive and social processes for the purpose of
realizing personally meaningful and educationally
worthwhile learning outcomes.
21TP Categories
- Design Organization
- Facilitation
- Direct Instruction
22CoI Framework
- Anything missing in terms of teaching presence?
23DESIGN Social Presence
- Principle Establish a climate that will create a
community of inquiry. - Social presence supports purposeful collaboration
and a questioning predisposition.
24DESIGN Cognitive Presence
- Principle Establish opportunities for critical
reflection and discourse that will support
systematic inquiry. - The design of academic activities have a
significant impact on how students approach
learning
25FACILITATION SP
- Principle Sustain community by shifting from
affective expression to purposeful cohesive
responses. - The challenge here is to maintain and enhance
group cohesion (i.e., collaboration and support).
26FACILITATION CP
- Principle Encourage and support the progression
of inquiry through to resolution. - Facilitation is essential to keep the discourse
on track and ensure that inquiry evolves.
27DIRECT INSTRUCTION - SP
- Principle Manage collaborative relationships to
support students to assume increasing
responsibility for their learning. - Direct instruction can increase confidence and
respect by managing potential conflict and
ensuring that students are collaborating
constructively.
28DIRECT INSTRUCTION - CP
- Principle Ensure that discourse moves to
resolution and metacognitive awareness results. - The primary role for direct instruction is to
ensure that discourse and collaboration achieve
larger educational goals.
29Summary
- Design
- establish social and cognitive presence
- Facilitation
- sustain social and cognitive presence
- Direct Instruction
- progressively develop social and cognitive
presence
30ASSESSMENT
- Ensure assessment is congruent with intended
learning outcomes. - Assessment will inevitably shape how students
approach the educational experience. Assessment
must support and enhance intended learning
processes and outcomes.
31Role of Technology
- Can technology support discourse and reflection?
- Can we build communities of inquiry without the
considerable use of communications technology??
32Impact of Instructional Technologies On
Learning Objectives Positive Impact
Total Sample N1980
( ) Order of Priority
33Collaboration
- What are the challenges of creating and
sustaining a collaborative Community of inquiry
online?
34Most Important Learning versus Teaching
Objectives
35Least Important Learning versus Teaching
Objectives
36Question
- How many are comfortable reducing lecture time?
- Is there a place for the lecture in blended
learning?
37Question
- How many are comfortable reducing lecture time?
- Is there a place for the lecture in blended
learning?
38Blended Learning
- Thoughtful integration of face-to-face and online
learning. - An opportunity to enhance the classroom
experience and extend learning through the
innovative use of Internet information and
communications technology. - Not an add-on redesign approaches (e.g.,
replace lectures, add online activities)
39State of Blended Learning
- 10 of courses are blended
- Blended courses are increasing
- Online courses appear to be decreasing
- Higher in the US (data)??
- BL is more effective than classroom instruction
however, participants preferred f2f (Sitzmann et
al., 2006)
40BL Priorities Saying Very Important
- Increased authenticity learning through real
life events, real world scenarios (also known as
experiential learning) 43. - Evolving student-teacher relationships --
coaching, mentoring, facilitating 38. - Continuous student assessment ongoing
systematic student assessments 36. - Individualization supporting different
learning styles 35.
Total Sample N1980
41Why Blended Learning?
- New approaches to teaching (change culture)
- Enhance student learning
- Maximize institutional resources
- Access convenience
42Strategic Challenges
- Awareness and understanding of inquiry and
blended learning - Student orientation (resistance)
- Commitment to fundamental redesign
- Comprehensive plan covering all four
undergraduate years (IBL) - Teaching-research imbalance (recognition
reward)
43IBL Program
- Faculty apply for course redesign grants (10,000
with one 30,000 grant for a major course
redesign) - Proposal reviews and selections are made by the
Inquiry Learning Action Group - Teaching Learning Centre provides course
redesign consultation and support (define course
goals and expectations, redesign learning
activities and assessment assignments, adapt and
develop online tools, evaluate implementation,
and disseminate results)
44Innovation Redesign
- Preference will be for applications that
demonstrate true innovation in teaching and
learning through inquiry and blended learning
approaches - Enhance the quality of teaching and learning
(e.g., increased discourse collaboration)
45Question
- Is there a typical blended learning course
design? - What does a blended learning course look like?
46Scenario One - Economics
- Introductory Micro and Macroeconomics
- Goal to increase
- student engagement with course material outside
of class time - opportunities to apply theory to practical
problems - access and quality of tutorial resources
- Solution
- Replacement of scheduled classroom tutorials with
interactive online tutorials and assignments
(Blackboard with links to Aplia.com)
47Scenario Two Communication Culture
- International Development Studies
- Goal to increase
- Student peer interaction and critical dialogue
during class time - Solution
- Lectures replaced by Macromedia Breeze
presentations (narrated PowerPoint with embedded
videos and self-assessments) accessed outside of
class time within the Blackboard learning
management system - Class time used exclusively for group work (60
students - 20 meet on Monday, 20 meet on
Wednesday and 20 on Friday)
48Scenario Three Nursing
- Child and Youth Health Promotion in Schools
- Goal to increase
- Course scheduling flexibility
- Exposure to diverse perspectives
- Solution
- Weekend course workshops
- Virtual presentations by online guests through
the Elluminate Live! system and related
discussions hosted within the Blackboard
learning management system
49U of C BL SURVEY
- Faculty and student feedback and reactions to
blended learning.
50BL Instructor Survey
- What do you like most about BL?
- Increased access and flexibility
- Variety of approaches
- Increased communication
- Assessment feedback efficiencies
- Increased opportunity for student reflection
- Richer classroom interactions
- Development of a learning community
51BL Instructor Survey
- What do you like least?
- Increased instructor workload
- Nothing
- Students challenged to contribute online (i.e.,
take responsibility for their learning) - Technology challenges
52Question
- Are there strategies that will encourage faculty
to adopt blended learning approaches?
53BL Student Survey
- Interaction - amount
- With other students
- 77.6 increased 15.8 nd
- group work was primary reason
- With instructor
- 55.2 increased 27.4 nd
- accessibility was primary reason
54BL Student Survey
- Interaction quality
- With other students
- 68.9 increased 25.3 nd
- group work was primary reason
- With instructor
- 58.5 increased 27.8 nd
- accessibility was primary reason
55BL Student Survey Summary
- Most effective
- group work discussions online resources
- Least effective
- expectations not clear online components heavy
workload - Advice be prepared to take responsibility and
be open to new approaches
56Research Issues
- Despite the growing interest and enthusiasm and
application of TML technology-mediated
learning, there is a paucity of theoretically
grounded and rigorous research to guide the
development of these environments. - Alavi Leidner, 2001
57Issues
- Social presence shifts
- personal to purposeful communication
- Development of cognitive presence
- from exploration to resolution
- Teaching presence construct
- distinction between facilitation direct
instruction - Qualitative transcript analysis
- coding protocol shift to quantitative
instruments
58C of I Framework
- Do the three elements capture the core dynamics
of a community of inquiry? - Construct validity of presences (i.e.,
categories)?
59Social Presence
- What is the nature of SP in a purposeful online
CoI? - SP intersects with CP and TP
- Personal but purposeful relationships?
- Relationship of affect and cohesion variables?
60Cognitive Presence
- CP is a process model
- Difficulty moving to integration exploration
phases? - Why? model, educational process, communication
medium, teaching presence, other? - Tasks and direction influence CP (Meyer,
20032004) - Tasked to solve a problem, no problem moving to
resolution (Murphy, 2004)
61Teaching Presence
- TP is a significant determinate of student
satisfaction, perceived learning, and sense of
community - Validation of TP construct (Shea, 2006 Arbaugh
Hwang, 2006 Garrison et al., 2004) - Distinction between facilitation and direct
instruction?
62Coding and Validity
- Issues validity of framework, coding at
indicator level, unit of analysis, other? - To date largely exploratory qualitative approach
- Is it time for quantitative research designs and
larger inter-institutional studies (i.e.,
standardized instrument)?
63QUESTIONS
64Contact Information