This study describes how online courses were designed and delivered based on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework and how this influenced the online interaction in a Sino-American university in Wenzhou, China during the pandemic. The courses were English composition and Academic oral discourse, and Canvas was used as the learning management system for both synchronous and asynchronous modes. The first phase of the study was to create the online instructional design following the CoI principles to enhance interaction and applying the courses. The second phase was to examine the aspects of interaction related to the CoI framework at the end of the courses. The CoI Scale was used to measure the dimensions of the framework among the students who took the courses at the end of the 2022 fall semester. Descriptive analyses indicated that teaching, cognitive, and social presence constructs all had high scores. There was no significant difference between any of the constructs. The findings were discussed in relation to effective online instructional design and online education.