This paper discusses findings of a study investigating how students, in four online courses, engaged in inquiry-based learning with and without support from a facilitator. The investigation was conducted by analyzing discussions of the online courses using the community of inquiry model. The results of the study imply that students in online discussions can engage in deep and meaningful learning, even when there is no facilitator interaction. Further, the findings of the analysis suggest that successful inquiries are possible without teacher or facilitator interactions, if learning environments are designed to support students being interactive and the students have motivation, regulatory skills and a willingness to collaborate with their peers. (Contains 5 tables and 4 figures.)