Date of Award
Winter 2011
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
STEM Education & Professional Studies
Program/Concentration
Instructional Design & Technology
Committee Director
Gary R. Morrison
Committee Member
Ginger S. Watson
Committee Member
Edward Neukrug
Abstract
First described by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000), the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework suggests social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence are essential elements to foster successful educational experiences in computer-mediated higher education distance learning environments. While hundreds of CoI-based articles have been published since 2000, those critical of the framework and related research suggested a lack of empirical evidence to support the framework's central claim that a CoI leads to deep and meaningful learning outcomes (Rourke & Kanuka, 2009). The current study, conducted with 51 graduate students in five distance education courses at the same university, compared the students' responses to a CoI perception survey with three measures of learning achievement as assessed by the course instructors.
While significant positive relationships were indicated among social, teaching, and cognitive presences, as well as between each of these presences and perceived learning in the course, no relationship was suggested between the CoI composite score and any of the three instructor-assessed learning achievement measures. Only the cognitive presence subscale was found to be significantly positively correlated (r2 = .08) with one instructor-assessed achievement measure, the significant project score, but no presences were correlated with the other two instructor-assessed measures of learning achievement. However, when controlled for other course features, social, teaching, and cognitive presences were not predictors of any of the three instructor-assessed measures of learning, but were instead significantly correlated with course satisfaction.
With no relationship suggested between the CoI framework and objective measures of learning, the value of the CoI framework as an educational process model remains challenged. In addition, results of this study suggested that CoI survey-based measures and student self-reports of learning are more appropriately used as approximations of student attitude toward the course rather than as measures of student learning achievement.
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DOI
10.25777/zhef-hd28
ISBN
9781267109781
Recommended Citation
Maddrell, Jennifer A..
"Community of Inquiry Framework and Learning Outcomes"
(2011). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Dissertation, STEM Education & Professional Studies, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/zhef-hd28
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/stemps_etds/76
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