The twenty-eight item Sense of Online Community Scale was completed by 293 online students at a midsized southeastern United States university to ascertain community importance and activities associated with its formation and maintenance on the program and institutional level. A large majority of these students believed that a sense of community…

This exploratory qualitative study investigates the obstacles, local support, and learning outcomes for adolescent learners in Nepal taking massive open online courses (MOOCs). A convenience sampling method was employed, and a total of thirteen individual interviews were conducted with K-12 Nepali students. Utilizing thematic analysis, this study…

This qualitative study aims to improve accessibility and equity in digital spaces by identifying the prevalent mismatch between online course design, student culture, and its connection to instructional design for teacher preparation programs. Utilizing feminist theory, we explore the intersection between community, identity, and learning within…

Social presence is one key factor for successful learning in socio-constructivist learning environments, such as in online-courses based on the Community of Inquiry Framework. Teachers need easily interpretable and pedagogically relevant information to monitor social presence and to intervene if needed while a course is running. Social network…

Within the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, cognitive presence has been central to success in higher education settings. This systematic review examined 24 articles published between 2008- 2020 that empirically analyzed cognitive presence in online courses. We share the patterns that emerged regarding the interplay between teaching and…

The current study aimed to understand the trend in the community of inquiry that many researchers have been working on for over 20 years. Within the scope of this aim, 102 studies were reviewed with regards to some variables: most preferred keywords and words in abstract, year of publication, authors, journals, geographical distribution, academic…

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework describes success factors for collaborative online-based learning. The CoI Survey is a validated instrument to measure these factors from the perspective of course participants. Until now, no validated translation of this Survey to German was available. The aim of this work was to translate the original…

The article begins with a review of the shared metacognition construct and its function within the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework. The primary focus of the shared metacognition construct is the role of learners to take responsibility and control for monitoring and managing learning in a community of inquiry. Pragmatic challenges are…

Online education has grown and continues to expand, driven by innovative information and communication technologies that facilitate effective interactions both within and outside the online classroom. Post-traditional students with diverse and complex identities face unique challenges in establishing connections within online learning environments…

The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to investigate the relationships between perceived online student engagement and self-reported grade point average (GPA) among post-licensure, undergraduate nursing students. Participants for this study were RN-to-BSN students at a mid-sized university in the Midwest. Approximately 110…

This article applies the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to a particular disciplinary context: first-year writing (FYW). Students enrolled in online FYW courses across three institutions (n = 272) completed a version of the CoI survey that was slightly modified to fit the disciplinary context of writing studies. A factor analysis was…

This descriptive study offers lessons learned from students' experiences with a gamified, social media-like instructional approach in eighteen courses from spring 2021 through spring 2022. Researchers at a mid-sized university in the southeastern United States leveraged Christensen's (2011) disruptive innovation theory as a guiding framework to…

Online universities utilize academic social networks to build connections among students, faculty, and alumni through affinity groups. This study explored how students interact in academic social networks, who they collaborate with, why they use academic social networks, and how this influences their educational experience. This qualitative,…

Over the last decade, the prevalence of online courses has continued to grow, and students in higher education are being offered increased access to technology and communication tools in online learning programs. This action research study analyzed the impact of two distinct types of online course instruction (100% asynchronous and weekly online…

Offering online courses can be seen as a way of enhancing the three essential "presences" (teaching, cognitive, and social) of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model. Creating and enhancing cognitive, teaching, and social presences require an innovation for teachers during planning, implementing, and evaluating their online courses. As…