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This thesis draws upon relational explanations of human action to understand the author's experiences of school leadership in conditions of uncertainty. The central arguments arrived at in this inquiry recognise the importance and inevitability of plurality (Arendt, 1958) in organisational life, the co-constructed nature of shared responsibility for political action (ibid) within this plurality, and the importance of a professional community of inquiry (Peirce, 1955) for helping school leaders to engage in thoughtful action (Arendt, 2005) in uncertain times. This involves a paradoxical understanding of time, with the thesis concluding by stressing the importance of the human capacity to make promises and forgive as crucial to the emergent ethics of school leadership. These insights emerged from the author's critical engagement with taken-for-granted insights about leadership in education. The research for this thesis involved 'taking experience seriously' (Mowles & Stacey, 2016), with the author inquiring into narratives of unexpected and disturbing events in his practice of school leadership with others. Taking an autoethnographic approach supported by other members of the DMan academic community of inquiry, the author has gained reflexive insights about his practice as a headteacher. In making sense of the disturbances, the author has revisited and critiqued theories that previously shaped his practice as a headteacher of an English secondary school. This thesis shows how theories of 'distributed leadership' (Gronn, 2002; Harris, 2003, 2004) and 'relational trust' (Bryk & Schneider, 2002; Tschannen-Moran, 1997, 2000, 2009, 2014) make claims which do not appear to explain the experiences of headship described in the empirical narrative material. As a result of these findings, the author questions the assumptions of transformational leadership; the dominant managerial paradigm in education. It is argued that transformational leadership discourses offer magico-mythical thinking (Elias, 1956) that creates myths to solve the mystery (Stacey, 2007) of routinely conflictual and contingent experiences of organisational life in school leadership. The three myths of distributed leadership and relational trust theories are identified as 'enduring harmony', 'complexity reduction' and 'positional authority'. In deconstructing the mythological assumptions of transformational leadership, this thesis concludes with reconstructive counterarguments. Rather than expect enduring harmony, a community of inquiry is conflictual. Instead of seeking reduced complexity through idealised values, thoughtful action involves the unpredictable functionalisation of those values with others (Mead, 1923). Rather than rely on the sovereignty of the headteacher's positional authority, thoughtful action in a community of inquiry offers a social process of human relating in pursuit of school improvement. The human ability to forgive and be forgiven, and to make promises and try to keep them (Arendt, 1958), are integral to the counterarguments presented in this thesis. This thesis makes a number of interrelated claims for a contribution to knowledge presenting, from the perspective of a headteacher, a nuanced critique of some of the myths underpinning transformational school leadership theories. This thesis offers a phenomenological understanding of the implications of these myths for practitioners and suggests that thoughtful action within a plurality, seen as a community of inquiry, represents an ethical practice of school leadership for headteachers and other managers.

This thesis comprises a critical review and suggestions for enhancement of the Community of Inquiry Framework (CoIF), the frequently cited model of collaborative community-based online learning. It combines a systematic engagement of relevant literature and research, with the application of the CoIF thinking to six of my peer-reviewed publications. Although not initially conceived as forming part of a doctorate submission, these publications are drawn upon throughout this narrative, to assist my interrogation of the CoIF. They are also used to provide evidence of my continuing journey as an education researcher. This thesis is therefore not an exegesis – a traditional meta-narrative encompassing this candidate’s publications. It moves beyond my findings in the publications to create and present supplementary concepts, and develop pointed guidance about using the Framework in supporting online learning in tertiary education. My review first critically interrogates the three constituent elements or Presences of the CoIF. Social presence emerges as a highly complex and multi-faceted construct, in which the de-emphasising of the affective in the CoIF seems at variance with current research reporting the strong student emotional response to working online, and particularly in collaborative, community-based groupings. Then, in Cognitive presence, there has been little consideration of, and specificity about, reflection in the CoIF. My critique proposes that reflection and critical thinking are distinct but inter-related concepts; both of which need to be addressed. Teaching presence is renamed ‘Tutoring presence’ informed by my review based upon my emergent understandings of student-centred learning. Two enhancements to the CoIF are then proposed, together with the rationale for establishment of a Tutors’ Network. The first enhancement, referred to as 'the Influences,’ unites and enriches the individual Presences. The second argues for the existence and use of a personal learning retreat at the heart of a community of inquiry, addressing a perceived omission in the CoIF. This learner ‘space’ provides a ‘quiet, safe place’ for the private (internal) world of the learner, as a foil to the shared collaborative space in the CoIF (the external world). Finally, a Tutors’ Network is outlined as a vehicle for advancing their understandings and knowledge of online, collaborative, community-based learning in general, and in particular of communities of inquiry. This should develop the abilities of online tutors, improve their learners’ educational experiences and encourage research and scholarship into the CoIF.

The purpose of this case study was to understand first-year college students’ perspectives on online discussion boards in the context of learning, via the community of inquiry framework. The theory guiding this study is Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, which identifies how learners create their own learning experiences in the classroom. The theory’s value comes from it being used to understand student thought in discussion boards, which is the study’s focus. A case study was the design, and the goal was to gather empirical data from discussion board experiences from students. The central research question was What are the experiences of a group of first-year nontraditional students engaged in a discussion board for a virtual English composition course? Fourteen students, 13 females and one male, made up the sample. Their discussion board responses, individual interviews, and group study recordings represent the qualitative data. All data were collected in a virtual setting via the online classroom, as well as Zoom. Interpretational phenomenological analysis was employed to analyze student interview responses, the group study, and discussion board responses to uncover themes in the data. The study found four significant themes during the analysis phase. First, the participants took little satisfaction in the social presence in the discussion board due to a lack of social opportunities. However, the participants did enjoy instructor presence, thanks to quick, encouraging, and critical responses. In addition, the participants did not exhibit a sense of critical thinking and seemed to participate with mostly the minimum requirement. It is hoped this research will act as a foundation for additional exploration into the community of inquiry’s relationship with online learning by providing starting points for answers to the issue of online student engagement.

Recently, the numbers of Higher Education institutions that are using Web 2.0 technologies and social networking sites are increasing dramatically. These sites offer unique and diverse learning opportunities. There is evidence that a sense of community can be created online and that this community is connected with perceived learning. Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000) introduced and developed the Community of Inquiry framework as a dynamic process model and a comprehensive framework to guide the research and practice of online learning communities, and to describe and measure elements supporting the development of these communities. This framework consists of three elements - social, teaching and cognitive presence - as well as categories and indicators to define each presence and guide the coding of transcripts. The categories of social presence are affective responses, open communication and group cohesion. The categories of teaching presence are instructional design and organisation, facilitating discourse and direct instruction. Previous studies suggest that a positive social climate on an online learning community is important as it can improve learning experience and cognitive presence. This study aims to explore and understand the nature of Community of Inquiry presences, in particular teaching presence and social presence. The aim of the study is to understand the influence of a different teaching presence on students’ development of social presence. This study provides a more comprehensive picture of developing students’ social presence over changing teaching presence in a social network environment in a Kuwaiti higher education context. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, the following research questions are explored: 1- How does a students’ sense of social presence change with a different teaching presence in the social network environment within a Kuwaiti higher education context? a. Does a students’ sense of social presence (affective responses, open communication and group cohesion) change as a result of a different teaching presence (facilitating discourse - direct instruction) in the social network environment in a Kuwaiti higher education context? b. Why do participants maintain or change their social presence level during the course? 2- How does the use of teaching presence promote the development of students’ social presence in a Kuwaiti higher education context within the social network environment? The study was conducted in the second semester of 2010/2011 at The Education Technology Department - The College of Basic Education - The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET), within the State of Kuwait. The study was carried out on the Educational Communication module and involved 46 male participants. This study uses the equivalent of mixed methods design to answer research questions. The sequential explanatory strategy is embedded within an applied quasi-experimental approach. Quantitative data is collected and analysed, which is then followed by the collection and analysis of qualitative data. The researcher used a messages analysis and a content analysis approach to reveal the level of social presence in an online community and then develop stimulated recall interview questions. A combination of individual interviews and focus group interviews were used. Garrison et al.’s (2000) social presence coding schemes were developed to make them more suitable in the study context. Quantitative and qualitative data show that there is no significant difference between the effects of facilitating discourse and direct instruction in terms of students’ social presence level. Stimulated recall interviews reveal that most participants cannot distinguish between facilitating discourse and direct instruction. The participants believe that facilitating discourse and direct instruction are similar. The participants’ responses lead the researcher to search for other motives that could promote the development of students’ social presence in the higher education context in the social network environment. The study concludes that there are two factors that could promote the development of students’ social presence. First, instructional design and organisation, such as web design satisfaction, network effect, instructor responsiveness, the nature of the task and awarding degrees. Second, learner-specific matters, such as previous experience, peer influence, friendship, attitude, self-esteem and self-confidence and something I refer to as the Wave Effect.

Building community is essential to achieving optimal learning conditions. Failure to build community in online courses is linked to higher drop-out rates, feelings of isolation, and lower academic success rate (Adams & Wilson, 2020). Although there is research on building a sense of community in online course settings, much of this work has focused on the asynchronous environment and/or at four-year colleges. Synchronous online learning has become more common since the Covid-19 pandemic and is situated to be a common teaching method for years to come. There is a need for research focusing on synchronous online courses taught at community colleges. While the literature recommends several strategies for building community in synchronous online courses (Berry, 2017, 2019; Chlup & Collins, 2010; McGrath et al., 2014; Tanner, 2012), it is unknown how effective these practices are within our district, nor the extent to which they are used. Therefore, this study seeks to understand strategies mentioned in the literature, as well as other strategies which are currently being used to build a sense of community in the synchronous online environment within the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD).The results of the study show there are nine common practices that faculty independently mentioned as aiding them in building a sense of community in their synchronous online courses (the use of videoconferencing being the top practice). Furthermore, the study found the Community of Inquiry framework to be positively correlated with the perception of successful community building in synchronous online courses. Consequently, this study recommends a new presence, care presence, to be added to the existing presences (teaching, social, cognitive) within the Community of Inquiry framework. While care presence may be seen as an outgrowth of social presence, this study suggests it should be treated as a unique additional presence.

This study aimed to observe measurement invariance between community college students and university students in response to the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Survey instrument. Most studies of the CoI survey instruments have recorded and validated the instruments considering undergraduate or graduate students. This study sought to validate and prove the survey tool as a reliable instrument for the community college population. The study employed SEM and meta-analytic procedures to observe measurement invariance between a Monte Carlo generated general university sample population and the community college survey population. The findings are discussed, as well as the implications for CoI studies in the community college.

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the shared experiences of teachers who have established presence in online classrooms after transitioning from face-to-face to online elementary classrooms in a virtual program developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theory guiding this study was the community of inquiry (CoI) framework, developed by Garrison et al., as it specifically relates to distance and online learning and provides a context for research. In this qualitative study, data was collected through interviews, documentation, and a focus group with 11 online teachers (OT) representing several grade levels in an online program. Data was analyzed using a phenomenological process outlined by Moustakas and by employing open, axial, and selective coding to organize themes throughout the study. The setting of this study was an online program located in the southeastern U.S. Findings showed the importance of student-to-teacher and student-to-student relationships as well as providing professional development to OT that is relevant to online classrooms. A major finding of the study was that online classrooms can be as effective or more effective than face-to-face classrooms when best practices are implemented and presence has been established.

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to describe the lived experience of mathematics anxiety for self-described math-anxious students who completed an undergraduate mathematics course online at a university in the Pacific Northwest part of the United States. The theory guiding this study is community of inquiry (COI) introduced by early pragmatist philosophers C. S. Peirce and John Dewey and further developed by D. Randy Garrison, Terry Anderson, and Walter Archer as mathematics anxiety is a learned behavior based on students’ experiences. This research study answers the central research question: What are the lived experiences of mathematics anxiety for self-described math-anxious college students who completed a mathematics course online? Data was collected from a purposeful, criterion sample of 10 self-described math-anxious students who have completed an online mathematics course. Data collection methods included questionnaires, individual interviews, and focus group meetings. Data analysis followed a systematic procedure that included epoche, phenomenological reduction, imaginative variation, and synthesis. Three themes emerged from this research: teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. The findings revealed how self-described math-anxious students who completed an online undergraduate math class experienced math anxiety due to a lack of understanding of the concepts taught through gaps in prior knowledge or the inability to connect new concepts. Further research is needed regarding math anxiety and other factors to include (a) later in life diagnosis or misdiagnosis of conditions that challenge learning, (b) fear of asking for help, (c) social connection with other students, and (d) addressing math anxiety in the online math classroom.

Social interaction among learners plays a significant role in online learning environments (Garrison, 2006; Kreijns et al., 2014; Mykota, 2017). The construct of social presence in online courses is important because it influences interaction and connectedness among learners and its effects on their learning outcomes and emotional well-being. Social presence at its essence refers to how an individual is perceived as a "real person" in an online environment (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997). Online students must decide what aspects of their social identities they share in their interactions with their peers and instructors. Furthermore, LGBTQ+ students must negotiate what aspects of their sexual orientations or gender identities they wish to self-disclose while taking online classes. In the past, research has explored how LGBTQ+ individuals use social media and online resources to negotiate their online social identities. Members of the LGBTQ+ community have used online platforms to explore their identity, facilitate the coming out process, and as a means of social support with other members of the community and its allies. However, LGBTQ+ perspectives regarding online social presence and self-disclosure in online learning environments are unknown. The purpose of this single qualitative case study was to explore LGBTQ+ college students' perceptions of social presence and its indicators, affective expression, open communication, and group cohesion in online courses related to their decisions surrounding self-disclosure. Data collection occurred through recorded participant interviews on Zoom. The interviews used semi-structured, open-ended questions created by the researcher. Interview recordings were transcribed and analyzed to uncover LGBTQ+ participants' perceptions of social presence and the factors that influenced their decisions related to self-disclosure. Their responses were coded and categorized using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) and social identity theory (SIT) as theoretical frameworks. The study's findings showed that the lack of collaborative and interactive activities in online classes that promote social presence left participants uncertain about how they perceived their classmates and how they may have been perceived by them. Participants described their experiences in online classes as lacking a sense of belonging and authentic connection. Furthermore, participants were reluctant to share personal information in the initially limited exchanges with their classmates. Participants' decisions to self-disclose information related to their gender identity and sexual orientation were based on factors like privacy, perceived social and political climate, and openness in professional and personal lives. Participants suggested that creating safe online spaces may reduce barriers to self-disclosure through instructors identifying as allies, sharing pronouns, and displaying symbols associated with support of the LGBTQ+ community. Further research is warranted for LGBTQ+ students' perceptions of social presence in online classrooms where their identities have been affirmed through institutional and environmental support.

Students of translation must be able to translate in a collaborative language industry. However, contextual constraints can impede the pedagogically sound incorporation of professionally relevant tools into translation practice. In this study, I propose methods for identifying and addressing these constraints and optimizing translation practice through the informed selection and implementation of knowledge-sharing tools that promote the development of technological and personal/interpersonal translation competence. I report on action research conducted in an asynchronous online translation practice course, where problems are documented on interaction taking place via knowledge-sharing tools used to complete translation-relevant assignments. Solutions to these problems are proposed based on data gathered on tool usage and student and instructor discourse, in addition to the experiences, attitudes, and opinions of course stakeholders both in and outside the university. In a first step, a survey is launched to identify the primary affordances of tools professional translators employ to interact with other professionals during translation and of tools educators use for interaction during online translation practice. In a second step, survey responses, learning environment data, student feedback, and instructor reflections are collected with the participation of stakeholders in an online master’s-level introductory translation practice course. These data are analyzed to gauge learning using community of inquiry-based indicators of presence, which are related to the knowledge-sharing tools through which interaction occurs during two course assignments. The survey is also used to identify constraints affecting the selection and implementation of tools in these assignments. In a third step, ways are proposed to address the identified constraints while selecting translation-relevant knowledge-sharing tools. The resulting empirically informed optimization of interaction in online translation practice provides students with opportunities to develop technological and personal/interpersonal translation competence within a community of inquiry.

With the American Bar Association’s recent move to a more liberal stance on distance learning and the newly gained experience with online education for all law students and legal educators due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that online legal education, in some form, is here to stay. Additionally, there is no indication that the Socratic method with its strong ties to legal education will be abandoned. Therefore, the legal academy must address how it can continue to use the Socratic method as its preferred pedagogical tool to teach students “to think like lawyers” in online modalities. This mixed methods phenomenological case study explored the perceptions of faculty members and traditional first-semester law students regarding the use of the Socratic method in an online J.D. course. The study used the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework as a lens through which to assess the students’ perceptions of the course. The study involved the CoI survey, interviews with students and the faculty members involved in the course, and observations of the Socratic method in the synchronous Zoom sessions and the use of a simulated Socratic dialogue in the asynchronous modules in the course. The findings were supported by the research concerning online learning and the Socratic method and added insights into this group of traditional first-semester law students, who began their legal education online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, results from this study demonstrate that the Socratic method continues to be the expected pedagogy in law school doctrinal classes by both faculty and students; the Socratic method employed in the synchronous Zoom classes were similar to the traditional Socratic method used in face-to face classes with its inherent benefits and drawbacks; that the asynchronous use of the Socratic method addressed some of those drawbacks; and that the CoI framework supported the findings regarding the Socratic method.

Social annotation (SA) is a genre of web-based applications that allow users to annotate texts and to see and respond to annotations others have written. To explore the potential of SA for teaching writing online, findings from twelve empirical studies of SA in education were analyzed through the lens of the Community of Inquiry framework. Results indicate that SA can contribute to cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence in online writing instruction. SA supports collaborative understanding and unpacking of texts. Students can identify and discuss main ideas, claims, rhetorical moves, evidence, etc. They can ask and answer questions. The demands of articulating their views and comparing them to those of others cause students to become aware of their thought processes, a metacognitive development. Pedagogical strategies such as highlighting important concepts and seeding expert annotations can focus attention and scaffold learning. SA can promote the development of community as students collaborate and encourage one another. Teachers can plan and monitor SA activities aligned with learning outcomes. The findings provide insights to guide incorporation of SA in online writing instruction.

Online learning was growing in demand prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, due to the pandemic, more are seeing the need to increase the understanding of design strategies that improve student experiences. This study hypothesized a relationship between the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, representing the design strategies for learning effectiveness in online courses, and cognitive and behavioral engagement with student self-efficacy as a mediating variable between the constructs of CoI and cognitive engagement. Participants for this study were undergraduate students enrolled in an online course from universities all over the United States. The study used a hypothesized model and path analysis. While the model was a poor fit for the data, results of this study indicate a significant positive relationship between cognitive presence and cognitive engagement, cognitive presence and self-efficacy, teacher presence and behavioral engagement, and social presence and behavioral engagement. Results of this study suggest design strategies specifically related to the constructs in Community of Inquiry will have a positive impact on cognitive and behavioral engagement. However, it was found that self-efficacy did not play a mediating role between CoI and cognitive engagement.

The purpose of this study was to provide a phenomenological description of peer interaction and to explore the sense of community experienced by online learners in an accelerated online course delivered asynchronously. Though research indicates the importance of peer interaction and community in online learning, and online learners indicate their desire to feel a sense of community in online courses, there is a gap in literature that qualitatively details the essence of peer interaction and online learners’ perception of community. To address this gap, I interviewed six post-traditional online learners regarding their experiences interacting with peers and the way those experiences contributed to their sense of community in an accelerated online course. Five main themes emerged based on participants’ experiences and perceptions: (1) Routine, (2) Technology, (3) Course Design, (4) Perceptions of Interaction, (5) Sense of Community. The findings represented throughout this research align with the two research questions that guided this study: (1) How do students describe their experiences interacting with peers in an accelerated online course? (2) How do students describe their experiences of interacting with peers as contributing to their sense of community in an accelerated online course? This research contributes to a deeper understanding of factors that shape peer interaction and the sense of community felt in an accelerated online learning context. The findings evidence implications for online pedagogy, learning management systems, and for the implementation of the Community of Inquiry framework. Future research that focuses on the experiences and perceptions of online learners who share similar or different demographic characteristics through various methods would enhance understanding of peer interaction and community in online learning contexts. The need for such research is evident as diverse student populations’ exposure to learning through distance, online, and remote modalities continue to increase.

Asynchronous online discussions (AOD) can be designed to promote knowledge construction among learners and encourage active use of thought (Luhrs & McAnally-Salas, 2016). Unfortunately, little is known about the theoretical underpinnings of specific design factors: social connection and positive academic outcomes have been demonstrated for individual factors including project-based learning (Koh, Herring, & Hew, 2010), scaffolded learning (Liu & Yang, 2014), facilitation of discussion (Evans, Ward, & Reeves, 2017), and critical thinking (Topcu, 2010). Given these shortcomings, understanding of effective AOD designs driven by theory could promote greater professional development opportunities for future online educators and increase effectiveness of AOD for student learning outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate student perceptions of community in a four-factor AOD design, and to understand the dynamic relationships between discussion quality, community, participation, and motivation. The community of inquiry ([CoI] Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) framework provides the foundation for understanding online community as it promotes co-constructed knowledge. CoI recognizes three factors that contribute to meaningful educational experiences and knowledge construction (social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence). The self-determination theory ([SDT] Ryan & Deci, 2000a) and engagement theory (Kearsley & Schneiderman, 1998) provide the groundwork for motivation as online students must be properly incentivized and authentically engaged for optimal success. SDT recognizes the importance of intrinsic motivation in achievement and the interaction of three basic human needs that drive behavior (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). Engagement refers to activity that supports intrinsic motivation and promotes higher cognitive skills. Kearsley and Schneiderman (1998) applied engagement to professional practice where work with an authentic focus led to greater knowledge achievement as well as gains in teamwork and social interaction skills. The study context was a convenience sampling of four online, undergraduate courses with 85 total participants. A quantitative methods study was employed using data from student surveys and participation quality ratings of student AOD posts. Multivariate analysis of variance between the four courses on measures of CoI found no significant differences between the groups. Correlational analyses found a weak relationship between externally rated discussion quality and student perceptions of their own discussion participation. Correlational analyses of discussion quality and measures of motivation revealed a weak correlation to perceived competence for needs satisfaction and a weak relationship to behavioral engagement. Results indicated the CoI survey correlated strongly with measures of perceived participation, intrinsic motivation, needs satisfaction, and discussion engagement, confirming a connection between online community, SDT, and engagement within the sample AODs. The quantitative methods approach illuminated a nuanced picture of a four-factor AOD design and student perceptions of community, participation, and motivation. Implications for online educators were provided, including potential for professional development opportunities and a call for further research into the effects of individual AOD design factors on learning within a more complex theoretical framework.

Three projects will be discussed that shape my future as a science educator. Discovery of chemical probes as anti-cancer agents provided a deep chemistry knowledge base. Analysis of engagement protocols gave insights into how to structure and train a group for successful group work. The design and implementation of a learning module provided practice developing and assessing learning activities for the secondary classroom.

The purpose of this intrinsic case study, which followed a single-case, embedded research design, was to understand undergraduate education students’ experiences in online cooperative learning environments. Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s community of inquiry model, rooted in Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of learning and Tinto’s student integration theory, were used to guide this study and describe the significance of fostering strong social, cognitive, and teaching presence within online learning environments. To further understand online educational environments the following central research question was posed: How do undergraduate education students describe their experiences with cooperative learning activities within an online education course in terms of social, cognitive, and teaching presence? Subquestions investigated peer interactions, cognitive engagement, and engagement with the instructor and the instructional tools used. The setting for this study was an online teacher education course at a mid-sized postsecondary institution in which cooperative learning activities were embedded in the instructional activities, referred to herein as University of Learning. Participants were identified via purposeful criterion sampling procedures, based on enrollment in EDTE 402. Data were collected and analyzed from course materials, semistructured interviews with 10 participants, and a focus group discussion conducted with volunteer participants. A thick, rich description of the case was gained from fracturing the collected data, member checks, expert reviews, and triangulation. Findings indicated that infusing cooperative activities in online teacher education courses will promote high levels of social, cognitive, and teaching presence within virtual learning settings, leading to increased student learning outcomes.

Online education is becoming increasingly prevalent in higher education with many students and educators accepting its use. Because of the ubiquity of online education and the growth of technology in recent decades, it is important for educators to use educational methods that maximize the potential quality of online education. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework is a model of online education that emphasizes the importance of the learning community in the educational process. The CoI posits that effective learning environments must have strong cognitive, social, and teaching presences. There is numerous research that supports the use of the CoI in online learning environments. The purpose of the present research is to develop and validate an instrument, the Community of Inquiry Program-Level Inventory (CPI), for assessing the CoI in online academic programs. Students enrolled in online graduate degree programs completed the CPI and other measures in an online survey. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a four-factor model, and confirmatory factor analysis showed a good model fit with four factors. The subscales for the cognitive presence and social presence each emerged as single factors. The subscale for the teaching presence was divided into two distinct factors with items relating to instructional design in one factor and items relating to facilitating discourse and direct instruction in a second factor. These findings contribute to the research literature on the CoI and highlight the importance of the CoI in online academic programs.

This study explored the almost 20-year-old Community of Inquiry (CoI) social presence construct through faculty’s perspectives and practices of their online teaching. Social presence has many CoI-identified characteristics, but overall it is the ability of a student to project their persona into the classroom. The preponderance of investigation has been on the other two CoI constructs, teaching and cognitive presences. Questions have arisen whether social presence is even necessary or achievable in online learning. This research was to provide more insight on the importance of online social presence and its characteristics in the online learning environment. The investigation invited faculty of a Midwestern university who teach solely online courses to share their perspectives on and practices supporting social presence. Methodology employed was inquiry-based, qualitative research utilizing survey and interview questionnaires. The sample consisted of 62 survey respondents and six interviewees. Data and information gathered were survey respondents’ demographics, type and sizes of courses they taught, and responses to qualitative and Likert-scaled questions, as well as interviewees’ qualitative responses. These findings were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and qualitative information review to find patterns to help answer the research questions. From the survey data, significant Pearson Correlations were present related to very small (less than 21 students) and very large classes (over 80 students). Most social presence CoI characteristics were rated at least important to extremely important by over 50% of the faculty responses. Only two characteristics rated mostly somewhat important or not important. From the survey and interview responses, patterns arose that social presence is contextually important and can be impacted by class size, instructor course design, the course level (undergraduate versus graduate), subject matter, student’s self-regulate learning, and the amount of time and resources allotted to the instructor. A few survey responses stated that social presence is not at all important. Interviewees relayed that online social presence can be just as important as it is in face-to-face courses for learning outcomes. This investigation warrants more social presence research regarding class size and level, subject matter, institutional supports, instructor course design, student self-learning abilities, and CoI construct-to-construct impacts.

The purpose of this study was to better understand student learning in asynchronous computer-conference discourse (ASD) for non-native speakers of English in India through the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework. The study looked at ASD from an online course taught in the fall of 2015 to 25 students in a seminary in South India. All but one of the students were non-native speakers of English. The class consisted of 22 men and 3 women. Eight students spoke languages from the Dravidian family of languages (Malayalam, Tamil, Telegu and Kannada). Eight students were from the Northeastern states of Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, where most languages are from the Sino-Tibetan family. Three students were native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages (Odiya and Assamese). Five students were from Myanmar representing several Sino-Tibetan languages. The COI is a framework used to understand learning in ASD, often used in online learning. To study the ASD of this group, critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used with the COI to capture the unique socio-cultural and linguistic conditions of this group. The study revealed that non-native speakers of English often reach the Exploration phase of learning but rarely show evidence of reaching the Resolution phase. This phenomenon was also observed in native English speakers as reported in the literature. Also, the structure of ASD showed that students took an examination approach to discussion shaped in part by their epistemology. This examination approach shaped how knowledge was constructed. CDA also showed that the discourse acquired an instructor-centered structure in which Resolution and Repair were initiated and finalized by the instructor. The study advances the COI framework by undergirding it with a theory of asynchronous discourse using critical discourse analysis and capturing cognitive, social and teaching presence phenomena for non-native speakers that were not observed through the traditional COI framework. These phenomena were driven by cultural, epistemological, and linguistic forces and require a rethinking of the COI for contexts outside of North America. The study also demonstrates that learning for non-native speakers in ASD is challenged by these very same forces. Therefore, design for online learning should account for these phenomena.

This study examined students’ perceptions of teaching, social, and cognitive presence in an online, asynchronous mastery course as they related to interaction and student course satisfaction. The study design used structural equation modeling to examine the relationships. Data was collected from 166 students who were enrolled in an asynchronous online mastery course, which covered information technology literacy skills. The study was conducted over three years using a questionnaire built upon three previously validated instruments: The Community of Inquiry (CoI) Survey (Arbaugh, Cleveland-Innes, Diaz, Garrison, Ice, Richardson, & Swan, 2008), The Noel-Levitz Priorities Survey for Online Learners (Ruffalo Noel-Levitz, 2016) and the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (Walker & Fraser, 2005). The results of the study included a confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation model. Results showed that students’ perception of teaching presence had the strongest positive direct effect on student course satisfaction, while cognitive presence was not a significant predictor of course satisfaction. Cognitive presence was a significant positive predictor of interaction. Social presence had a positive effect on interaction, however interaction was not a significant predictor of course satisfaction. In addition, results showed that as students’ perception of social presence increased, their reported course satisfaction decreased. The results of this research enhance the understanding of how the interdependent relationships between teaching, social, and cognitive presence affect one another. This study adds to the literature on asynchronous online learning, mastery-type courses, can serve as a model for analyzing and improving online course design and implementation, and may be used for future research and development in similar contexts.

This mixed methods study examined student perceptions of social, cognitive, and teaching presence in a synchronous online environment based on participation in the environment, how the synchronous online environment affects social, cognitive, and teaching presence, and what aspects of teaching presence in an online synchronous environment support and enhance social and cognitive presence. Participants were students at a large, multi-campus community college enrolled in distance learning, blended learning, and web-enhanced courses. They attended either a live synchronous online session (n = 104) or viewed a recording of a live session (n = 65). Independent sample t tests compared the groups studied followed by correlation analyses to examine teaching presence as a predictor of social and cognitive presence. The quantitative results showed that students who participated in the live online synchronous sessions exhibited more positive perceptions of social and cognitive presences than those who viewed a recording of the session. Open, axial, and selective coding of the qualitative data produced findings that uncovered the themes of connection, confidence and transference among the participants’ experiences in both groups. The study has implications for understanding the potential that online synchronous technologies have in establishing social, cognitive, and teaching presences for initiating a community of inquiry in the online environment.

To prepare learners for success in the 21st century, institutes of higher education must provide students with meaningful learning opportunities, including participation in discourse and critical reflection. The community of inquiry framework describes the elements necessary to create collaborative, online learning environments, while transformative learning describes the content and outcomes of meaningful learning. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study of 242 online, graduate MBA students from a business school in Maryland, was to measure the relationship between a community of inquiry and transformative learning in online, graduate business courses. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to analyze scores from the Community of Inquiry survey instrument and Reflection Questionnaire to determine if there was a significant relationship between a community of inquiry and transformative learning. Results indicated that a significant relationship existed between a community of inquiry and transformative learning. Specifically, cognitive presence within a community of inquiry was found to be significantly related to both the reflection and critical reflection constructs of transformative learning, and teaching presence was significantly related to the reflection subscale. Future studies can investigate strategies for fostering transformative learning within a community of inquiry in online courses, examine different aspects of transformative learning and their relation to a community of inquiry, and replicate the study in different populations and in different disciplines.

The quantitative study examined how blended learning influences high school learners’ social presence, cognitive presence, teacher presence, and perceived learning in comparison to online instruction. The study answered the following research questions: (a) Do differences exist among the social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence of high school students enrolled in a blended course as compared to those enrolled in an online course? (b) Does a difference exist between perceived learning of high school students enrolled in a blended course as compared to that of those enrolled in an online course? The researcher used a causal-comparative research design and tested the hypotheses with a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Data used for analysis will be acquired from archival program effectiveness data collected from a southeastern public charter high school using the Community of Inquiry survey and the Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor (CAP) Perceived Learning Scale.

This dissertation presents an empirical investigation of learning from online courses. The current dissertation examined student participation, using Arbaugh et al.'s Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey instrument and Biggs et al.'s revised version of the Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) to determine CoI influences on learning from the students' perspective. This study is in response to Rourke and Kanuka's call to provide further empirical evidence about CoI conceptual framework connections to deep and meaningful learning. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the elements of CoI, cognitive, social, and teaching presences and students' learning approaches to students' perceived learning. Students enrolled in traditional, online, and, blended courses during the 2016 spring semester at a southwestern university participated in a web-based survey. Structural equation modeling was used to test the indirect effects between the elements of CoI, learning approaches, and perceived learning. Student's deep approach to learning was found to have an indirect effect between cognitive presence and perceived learning. However, this study's findings, when the CoI framework was viewed in its entirety, failed to provide evidence to simulate deep and meaningful learning.

The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the role of social presence in a professional online conference. This study explored how presenters and attendees convey social presence and how might it influence their conference experience. The participants were presenters and attendees registered for the 21st Annual Teaching Colleges and Community Worldwide Online Conference (TCC Conference), a completely online event that occurred in Spring 2016. Without presenters and attendees being physically at the venue, how do presenters and attendees construct and convey social presence to build a learning community? The current surge of research to understand online pedagogy and learning has targeted the virtual classroom while few studies have been conducted on social presence in online conferences. This multiple case study involved both qualitative and quantitative data using linguistic inquiry and word count, transcript content analysis, constant comparison analysis, a survey and interviews, grounded in the Community of Inquiry (CoI) theory for studying online learning experiences. Ultimately, the study revealed that social presence was manifested in the volume and patterns of interaction in a professional online conference and can be studied using the CoI framework’s social presence category. This was evident in the data gathered using multiple methods to observe and analyze what occurred during the 2016 TCC Conference and perceived experiences after the conference. Attendees projected themselves socially and affectively as well as formed perceptions of other attendees and presenters as ‘real people.’ For attendees, this was demonstrated by the way messages were posted in the chat box and how others interpreted those messages as well as how attendees interacted with each other and with the presenter using chat discussions. For the presenters, this was demonstrated by how they presented their content, how they interacted with attendees, what they did and what they said to engage attendees in the sessions within the context and tools limited to the computer mediated environment. The results of this study suggest that social presence can be established in a shorter time frame than previously thought possible compared to online courses conducted over a semester or term. Presenters and attendees participating in online presentations lasting 20 to 45 minutes were able to project observable instances of social presence. Other variables, such as presenter presence, content and delivery, attendee-presenter interaction, social media and previous relationships may have played varying roles in how social presence was established and maintained in a fully online professional conference.

The purpose of this study was to examine issues related to online graduate course effectiveness, and graduate student perceptions of characteristics of online learning environments and their effectiveness, and to explore the relationship between graduate student perceptions and student success in online courses. The research methodology employed was that of survey research, using the Graduate Student Online Learning Environment Survey instrument, targeted at graduate students enrolled in online courses at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. A total of 238 graduate students participated in this study. Findings revealed that approximately 87.4% of graduate students reported positive online learning experiences. Participants identified themselves as highly self-directed learners. Several critical individual characteristics including marital status, employment status, student status, future enrollment planning, enrollment in online programs, and number of online courses played a moderating role in online graduate students’ online course learning. However, based on the data from this study, no relationships were found among levels of age, gender, race/ethnicity, and previous online course experience and graduate students’ online course learning perceptions. Only a small portion (3.4%) of graduate students who responded to the survey reported online course non-completion in the fall semester of 2014.

Critical thinking for profoundly gifted students in a blended learning environment is an area of research that has not been thoroughly explored. While the number of online and blended learning classrooms for gifted students has increased exponentially over the last decade, the scholarly literature in this area is limited, both by the small number of studies being done with gifted students and the limited research on higher order thinking in online blended learning environments.This research used a holistic single case study method to examine critical thinking in the online component of a blended learning environment using the Newman et al. critical thinking content analysis model as a theoretical framework. It is noted here that the categories of Newman’s model are listed in italic bold throughout the dissertation in contradiction to APA style. The case study design was appropriate because it allowed the researcher to examine the phenomena of critical thinking taking place in various learning strategies using common asynchronous writing tools, through the lens of profoundly gifted high-school students.Online tools (discussion forums, blogs, Google Docs) did not seem to influence critical thinking in this case study. The data within all three tools (discussion forums, blogs and Google Docs) showed that justification, linking ideas, ambiguities, and outside knowledge were the strongest areas of critical thought. The data examining online strategies (structured, scaffolded, open-ended, debate/argument, role play, peer edits, and literary criticism) also showed that students were most comfortable using justification, linking ideas, ambiguities, and outside knowledge in their writing. It is unclear how much of an impact the lack of teacher presence and social presence had on tools and strategies implemented in this study. However, the poststudy responses from the instructor and students seem to support Garrison's theory of Community of Inquiry in supporting critical thinking in a blended learning environment. While technology such as learning management systems, discussion forums, blogs, and online document editing may provide essential tools for blended learning classrooms, tools and strategies may not be enough to promote critical thinking across a broad model like the Newman et al. model of critical thinking. Further research should examine how online tools and strategies affect critical thinking when discourse is supported by the instructor and students are consistently providing each other with feedback within a Community of Inquiry model.

Most research on Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 1988) has uncovered many instructional design considerations for learning complex tasks. Additionally, the Community of Inquiry (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) framework describes many of the learning experiences in online education. A gap existed in the literature for investigating cognitive load over the duration of a college algebra course and for investigating the relationship between cognitive load and cognitive presence. This research study has addressed this gap by investigating cognitive load and cognitive presence in an online and face-to-face college algebra course. The results of this study revealed that face-to-face students earned statistically significant higher final course grades and homework grades than the online students. The face-to-face math course was slightly more efficient because it produced learners who exerted similar cognitive load as learners in the online course but the learners in the face-to-face earned higher performance score. Online discussion prompts that ask student to apply their solution or defend their solution engaged students in cognitive presence differently. When students were prompted to apply their solution to a real world scenario, most students reached resolution in their initial posts, but they were often not cognitively present in their follow-up posts. When students were prompted to provide a defense of their solution, most of the posts demonstrated cognitive presence, but not as many individual students reached resolution. Additionally, students progressed through the stages of cognitive presence when an instructor asked them a specific question about their math problem or real life scenario in a timely manner. When instructors post questions to their students that directly ask for an application of their hypothesis or an explanation how they arrived at their hypothesis, students can reach the highest stage of cognitive presence. When instructors post messages that reach the highest stage of cognitive presence, students do not post messages that reach the highest stage of cognitive presence. Lastly, this study did not find a strong linear relationship between cognitive presence and cognitive load.

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATIONThe Struggle is Real: Student Perceptions of Quality in Online Courses using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) FrameworkbyBarbara TaylorDoctor of Education in Educational LeadershipUniversity of California, San Diego, 2016California State University, San Marcos, 2016Carolyn Huie Hofstetter, ChairCalifornia is in an educational drought and is facing a “college deficit” of college graduates. By 2030, it is anticipated that California will have a 1.1 million shortage of college-educated workers (Diaz, 2015). The struggle is real for people who want to get into college and for those who are in college trying to complete their higher education degree. As learners progress through the higher education system, various obstacles may happen in their lives to derail and divert their path to degree completion. To fulfill that desire, an increasing number of students are taking online courses and/or participating in online degree programs. The number of students taking online courses has increased for the 13th consecutive year (Allen & Seamans, 2016). This puts tremendous pressure on higher education faculty and administrators to demonstrate that online courses are equal to or better than face-to-face courses in terms of quality and student success due to the scrutiny about the quality of online courses by faculty, students, administrators, accrediting bodies, and legislatures.One of the ways to examine the quality of instruction is to evaluate levels of social, teaching, and cognitive presence in online courses. Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, this study looked at the perceptions of quality from the student viewpoint. The literature review revealed there is little research that looks at quality through the lens of a student. This is the first study to investigate all three elements of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework operationalized through the California State University (CSU) Quality Online Learning and Teaching (QOLT) instrument. The survey instrument measures undergraduate student perceptions of social, teaching, and cognitive presence in addition to accessibility, technology, and user support elements. The data from the 113 participants matriculating at a mid-sized, four-year university indicate that undergraduate students perceived the courses with all three elements of social, teaching, and cognitive presence to be high quality courses. The data from a single undergraduate instructor illustrates the importance of developing student-focused courses with social, teaching, and cognitive presence. Limitations, implications, and areas for future research are presented.

Abstract: School-based bullying is a pervasive issue in Canada, resulting in deplorable physical and psychological outcomes for victims, bullies and bystanders. Sexual and gender minority youth—and anyone perceived to embody variant sexual and gender norms—are especially at risk of abuse. I present evidence to suggest that a community of inquiry such as Philosophy for Children (P4C) has potential to improve the situation; P4C works to collapse sexual and gender dualisms and reconstruct gender epistemologies, providing young learners with a space to discover, together, that sexuality and gender are intricate and multivariate by nature and construction. This manuscript presents a multi-perspective theoretical analysis. It is used to frame P4C by drawing on queer, critical and postmodern theorizing to build pedagogy that addresses ethical concerns around the program while buttressing my central hypothesis that P4C, as pedagogical advocacy, can help prevent homophobic and transphobic bullying.

This study explored how the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum, an informal online language learning community in China, functioned to support its members to improve their English writing proficiency. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model was used as the theoretical framework to explore the existence of teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum. A mix-methods research design was applied to address the research questions. The transcript analysis of postings in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum was used to find the existence of teaching, cognitive presence, and social presence, and an adapted CoI survey was sent to members to measure their perceived teaching, cognitive, and social presences. The results showed strong evidences of teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence, and high levels of perceived teaching, cognitive, and social presences in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum. The well-designed technological environment, distributed teaching presence shared by moderators and members, and extensive evidences of social presence in the discussion forum worked together to support learning in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum.

The purpose of this research study was to explore the impact of specific Web 2.0 tools on students' experience of teaching, social, and cognitive presence and motivation when enrolled in a very large hybrid course. With online course enrollments continuing to grow at a higher rate than traditional enrollments in higher education (Allen & Seaman, 2011) and universities increasing class sizes as a way to meet this demand with fewer fiscal resources, it is imperative to find ways to keep students engaged and motivated when enrolled in very large classes. This study used the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) to examine the effect of specific Web 2.0 tools (asynchronous discussion, streaming lectures, multimedia lecture demonstrations, Twitter, and the Second Life virtual world) on teaching, social, and cognitive presence and motivation. The sample population for this study (n = 567) consisted of undergraduate students enrolled in a very large hybrid accounting course in the fall of 2010 at the University of Central Florida. The total enrollment for the course was 943 students. Students could attend face-to-face (f2f) class sessions in a large lecture room that seated 285 students or they could view a streaming video capture of the lectures online. Students were not required to attend the f2f class sessions and could complete the course entirely online. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variances (ANOVA), and results of the statistical analyses indicated that students who frequently used the Web 2.0 tools had statistically significant higher mean motivation scores than students who did not use the tools as frequently. Additionally, students who frequently attended the f2f sessions had statistically significant higher mean social presence scores compared to students who attended sometimes or not at all. Attending the f2f sessions, however, did not result in higher mean scores of teaching or cognitive presence. When examined for the impact of the specific Web 2.0 tools, analysis of the ANOVA results indicated that students who used the discussion, streaming lectures, multimedia lecture demonstrations, and Twitter all of the time had significantly higher mean scores of teaching, social, and cognitive presence compared to those students who used the tools less frequently. Further research should be conducted on large hybrid and online courses in different content areas and on those that use different types of learning approaches.

As a commonplace medium for instructional content in community colleges, the use of online courses is prevalent in higher education and is expected to continue to grow. While online classes offer a number of benefits to students, drawbacks of online education also exist. Because participants in an online classroom are not physically present together, they rely on communication tools to allow for interaction and collaboration. This study addressed the relationship between community college student perceptions of satisfaction of the use of asynchronous communication tools and community college student perceptions of satisfaction of social, teaching, and cognitive presence in a Region V community college. This study also addressed how that relationship varied depending on particular demographics of student program of study, age, gender, GPA, and prior online experience. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) instrument was utilized to measure social, teaching, and cognitive presence in the online classroom environment. A survey based on the literature review was developed to gather the perceptions of students’ satisfaction with the use of asynchronous communication tools in the online classroom. Tools included e-mail, discussions or forums, blogs or weblogs, wikis, and podcasting. The study population was the 1,363 enrolled students in the Spring 2014 semester who were taking at least one online course at the time the survey was conducted. The return rate was 31.5%. The study found eight conclusions: (1) these community college students are more satisfied with the use of three asynchronous communication tools: e-mail, discussions or forums , and podcasts, and less satisfied with the use of two asynchronous communication tools: wikis and blogs in online courses; (2) podcasts had the highest satisfaction among these community college students; (3) students who had taken three or more online courses were more satisfied with asynchronous communication tools in online courses; (4) students indicated a strong positive correlation in regards to student satisfaction with social, teaching, and cognitive presence; (5) not one specific presence emerged as more satisfying than the others for students; (6) demographics did not have a significant effect on student satisfaction with social, teaching, and cognitive presence; (7) students indicated a strong positive correlation between student satisfaction with the use of asynchronous communication tools and student satisfaction with social, teaching, and cognitive presence; and (8) students indicated a higher satisfaction with the use of e-mail and discussions when they had taken three or more online courses. Recommendations for practice and future research are included.

This project contributes to the literature on action research and undergraduate pedagogy for leadership development through application and expansion of existing theory on collaborative ways of teaching and learning. I applied a participatory, inquiry-based approach to teaching an undergraduate course in leadership studies over four semesters using the action research process of recursively asking and answering living questions in real time about teaching and learning with students' participating as co-researchers. Reflection on my initial, mostly traditional teaching strategies generated questions about the students' detachment from and resistance to exercising leadership, as well as the challenge of aligning my deepest values with my teaching. I invited subsequent cohorts to be co-investigators of these questions with me, guided by Torbert's method of action inquiry. I collected first-, second-, and third-person data from journals, course assignments, field notes, personal correspondence, discussion notes, interviews, collaborative writing, electronic discussion threads, and student course evaluations. The recursive action inquiry process led me to enact an increasingly experimental and emancipatory pedagogy which enabled the students to recognize the inertial passivity that restricted their capacity for agency, the experiences that had conditioned them in that way, and to acknowledge and act upon their responsibility for their own learning and exercise of leadership. At the same time I learned that my passion for liberating my students in this way paralleled and has been sustained by my ongoing, and unfinished struggle for my own emancipation from similar conditioning. Initially, I intended to contribute specifically to the improvement of pedagogy for undergraduate student leadership development; however, my findings have broader applicability. My narrative of the students', my dissertation committee's, and my struggles toward increasingly participatory and democratic forms of working in groups has larger application for those seeking to collaboratively transform their own groups and organizations with integrity, mutuality, and sustainability.

Trends in user-generated content on the Web are shifting the role of online course materials, student work, and communications channels in instructional settings. Evidence of users’ interaction with content has been brought into the foreground through interface elements which reflect and encourage interaction, including comments, ratings, tags, “likes”, view statistics, and others. This research considers such features "interaction traces" and explores their use and interpretation by student learners. This research investigates the use and perception of these features by students within a particular type of asynchronous learning environment, the creative writing workshop. Within the two courses studied, a poetry course and a fiction course, two forms of interaction traces were presented: peer criticism posted as comments on creative work and visible view counts for all comments posted in the course. Informed by the Community of Inquiry framework and using a case study methodology, this dissertation investigates whether interaction traces affect perceptions of social presence among students and how students respond to this evidence of the interaction and critique. Data were collected from course discussion transcripts, course management system usage statistics, and participant responses to six surveys. Discussion thread transcripts were subjected to content analysis for indicators of social presence. Additionally, the researcher performed individual interviews with the instructor and a subset of students. Analysis of participants' social presence, interaction with others, and participation in the class revealed evidence that peer criticism was mediated by social presence, that students engaged in a variety of individual relationships based on perceptions developed through interaction traces, and that participant reading and writing activities affected how they perceived the course and their peers. Social presence in comments served not only to humanize participants and to resolve conflict but led to confusion and frustration in some cases. The instructor's high level of social presence in the courses influenced participants and provided a model for some participants' approaches to coursework. Based on the themes which emerged from the case reports, this dissertation suggests some implications for online course planning and course management system design with regard to interaction traces.

The Community of Inquiry model provides a framework for recognizing and evaluating interpersonal behaviors in online educational settings. One of its three components, teaching presence (TP), describes those behaviors that are under the auspices of the online instructor. By examining these interactions and behaviors through the theoretical lens provided by teaching presence, and by measuring them with the Teaching Presence Scale (TPS), it may be possible to gain greater understanding of the practices employed most effectively by online instructors. This dissertation describes the background, theoretical and empirical foundations, methods, and results of a study on TP. The purpose of the study was threefold: to validate the use of the TPS in an online professional development setting outside of the higher education context in which it was designed and tested; to confirm the factor composition of TP among facilitators in an online professional development course; and to determine the extent and direction of the relationship between teaching presence and student satisfaction. The participants in this study (n = 718) were in-service educators enrolled at the Florida Online Reading Professional Development program. They responded to an instrument that included the 28 original TPS questions, plus 17 student satisfaction and 11 demographic items. Confirmatory factor analysis and Pearson's correlation were used to answer the three research questions and corresponding hypotheses. The research questions were answered in the affirmative, and the null hypotheses rejected. There was support for the use of the TPS in an online professional development setting (all 28 TPS items loaded as hypothesized on the three TP factors); support for a three-factor model of TP using 17 of the 28 TPS items (X2 [116, N = 718] = 115.56, p = .49, CFI = .999; NNFI = .999; SRMR = .02; and RMSEA = .03); and evidence of a strong relationship between components of TP and student satisfaction (statistically significant correlations [p < .001] between TP and student satisfaction, r2 values ranging from .25 to .57). A discussion of the results, implications for practice, implications for further research, and limitations of the study were presented following the data analysis.

Projections call for the proportion of students enrolled in blended courses to outpace the proportion of students in totally online courses in a few years. Yet the literature indicates that we know little about how undergraduates and graduate students learn in blended environments. In addition, few theoretical models have been developed specifically for online or blended learning. One such model the Community of Inquiry framework. The purpose of this study was to investigate how well the Community of Inquiry model explains discussion interactions among teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence over time and in different group modes to produce a worthwhile educational experience. Specifically, an undergraduate/graduate-level inquiry-based course at a large Midwestern university about the philosophical and historical roots of adult education in America was the context of the study. A quantitative content analysis of transcripts from one group (n = 4) that met via synchronous chats and another group (n = 5) that met face to face were examined. Statements in the transcripts were transformed to quantitative data for analysis within the framework of a mixed MANOVA design. Results found that group mode had an effect on frequency of social presence and cognitive presence. The face-to-face group generated more than twice the frequency of social presence indicators and nearly three times the frequency of cognitive presence indicators than the online group. There was no difference over time on the frequency of teaching presence, social presence, or cognitive presence for either the online or face-to-face group.