Establishing a Community of Inquiry

Blended Learning Series: Topic Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Blended Learning
Part 3: 
Designing Learning Activities – Establishing a Community of Inquiry

Overview

This part of the series focuses on developing student-centered learning experiences and content presentation.  It highlights both what you want students to learn (the content) and how you want them to learn it (the process). Table 1 offers things to consider in promoting inclusivity and higher-level thinking. 

Table 1:  Considerations for practice in BFHO settings 

Component Question Considerations for Effective Practice 

Interaction and Inclusivity (also see Inclusive Practice series) 

 

How will you create community and engagement? To increase participation and create a course climate of learning and inquiry (also see Implicit Bias series) courses should integrate cognitive, social, and teaching presences.  Attention to community increases student sense of belonging. 
Learning Activities How will student-centered pedagogies inform your instructional design so students can apply what they are learning? Create activities that integrate critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaborating both in/out of class.   Seamless transition between settings, requires attention to learning goals and course design.  Allow students multiple opportunities to demonstrate learning by planning differentiated activities. 

Adapted from Saichaie, 2020. 

Community of Inquiry Framework 

When designing learning activities, establish a community of inquiry that sustains the process of online learning as an integrated system.  First, create a teaching presence by considering student – instructor interactions.  For example, offering an Instructor Welcome and Orientation video that describes for students how to navigate the course can establish the instructor as facilitator. 

Next, build a cognitive presence through student – content and resource connections.  From student learning outcomes, to graphic organizers or thinking maps, to brainstorming prior knowledge, clear guidance on content and navigation supports student-centered learning.   

Finally, build a social presence by focusing on student – student interactions.  You can foster these through online discussions, online collaborative activities, or chatrooms (Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007; Garrison et al, 2000; Kaur & Harttrup, 2022).  Table 2 organizes many more examples by each type of presence. 

Table 2: Components of a Community of Inquiry 

 

Teaching Presence 
(student-instructor interaction) 
Facilitation of Learning 

 

Cognitive Presence 
(student-content interaction) 
Exploration of Ideas 

 

 

Social Presence 
(student-student interactions) 
Discourse and Climate as Learning Platforms 

  • Course instructional design and navigation 
  • Curriculum 
  • Syllabus 
  • Course schedule 
  • Netiquette rules 
  • Agendas and advance organizers 
  • Concept maps 
  • Previews and reviews, minute papers, “muddiest point” papers 
  • Providing instructor/TA/peer feedback on assignments, learning journals, or other reflective activities 
  • Participating in discussion forums or chats 
  • Sending announcements to summarize the previous week or describe the next week 
  • Providing online office hours for teams and individuals 
  • Mentoring individual learners 
  • Working with small groups of students assigned to help teach portions of course (peer teaching) 
  • Relevant, strategic content 
  • Tutorials (with text, images, audio, and/or video) with embedded interactivity 
  • Pause for reflection 
  • Self-assessments / clickers / polls 
  • Quizzes (with feedback) 
  • “You are the professor” question creation 
  • Modeling of procedures and methods 
  • Examples and visuals 
  • Web quests 
  • Reading / video discussion or reflection activity 
  • Jigsaw discussions 
  • Simulations 
  • Group-based curation of content 
  • Automated feedback 
  • Creating community expectations 
  • Inclusive pedagogies 
  • Equity pedagogies 
  • Collaborative tools and tasks 
  • Think / pair / share 
  • Group projects 
  • Peer instruction 
  • Role playing 
  • Synchronous / asynchronous discussion or debates 
  • Collaborative brainstorming 
  • Peer review of selected work 
  • Study buddy 
  • Student lounge 
  • Open-topic discussion 
  • Social media forum 
  • Informal blogs 
  • Individual, pair, and group work 
  • Q & A, open discussion forum 
  • Games 
  • Simulations 

Adapted from the Indiana University, Teaching Online 

Fostering Meaningful Engagement 

Discussion forums are a mainstay of hybrid and online courses, as they foster community and interaction among students and instructors. However, they can become tedious and ineffectual if not well organized. Make transparent both how discussion forums connect to course learning outcomes and how they will be assessed. If students will be required to comment on each other’s posts, consider providing examples of inadequate replies to classmates (e.g. “I really like your post.”) and more substantive comments. To solicit productive interactions, consider Stewart-Mitchell's “3C+Q method” (n.d.): 

Each post and response must include a compliment, a comment, a connection (3C) plus a question (Q). 

  • Compliment: I appreciate that…. 
  • Comment: I agree with that… I disagree because…. 
  • Connection: I also thought…. 
  • Question: I wonder why….