Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative, narrative inquiry was to understand teaching presence as an element of the community of inquiry model within online courses as described through the experiences of adult learners as nontraditional students. A narrative inquiry methodology was chosen to explore the lived experiences of 7 adult learners who completed at least 1 online graduate course during the previous 6 months at a large university in the northeastern United States. Each participant recounted stories of experiences of online teaching presence during a series of 3 semistructured, virtual interviews. The research question that guided the study was the following: What can be learned from the stories that adult learners tell about their experiences of teaching presence in completing their graduate work online? Through narrative data analysis, 4 themes emerged and as key findings. These findings are framed as reminders to instructors of online courses: 1. Design content that is relevant to adult learners. 2. Communicate clearly and effectively. 3. During instruction and facilitation, be present in teaching. 4. Bring humanity to the online environment. This study contributes to the literature in its use of a narrative inquiry methodology to explore this topic and in furthering the voices of adult learners in research about online learning.
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