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Abstract
This paper builds on the model we have developed for creating quality online learning environments for higher education. In that model we argue that college-level online learning needs to reflect what we know about learning in general, what we understand about learning in higher-education contexts, and our emerging knowledge of learning in largely asynchronous online environments. Components of the model include a focus on learner roles, knowledge building, assessment, community, and various forms of “presence.” In this paper we focus on two components—teaching presence and community—and review the rationale and benefits for an emphasis on community in online learning environments. We argue that learning is social in nature and that online learning environments can be designed to reflect and leverage the social nature of learning. We suggest that previous research points to the critical role that community can play in building and sustaining productive learning and that teaching presence, defined as the core roles of the online instructor, is among the most promising mechanism for developing online learning community. We present a multi-institutional study of 2,036 students across thirty-two different colleges that supports this claim and provides insight into the relationship between online learning community and teaching presence. Factor and regression analysis indicate a significant link between students’ sense oflearning community and their recognition of effective instructional design and directed facilitation on the part of their course instructors—and that student gender plays a small role in sense of learning community. We conclude with recommendations for online course design, pedagogy, and future research.
Highlights
Learning environments that are designed to leverage theoretically derived and research-based principles of good practice emphasize the critical role that students play in succeeding in their academic endeavors
We believe that online learning community may be established through effective instructional design and organization, the facilitation of productive discourse, and helpful direct instruction, all components of teaching presence as described by the Community of Inquiry Model
Our factor analysis indicates that a two-component model composed of instructional design and organization and directed facilitation emerges from the data
Summary
Learning environments that are designed to leverage theoretically derived and research-based principles of good practice emphasize the critical role that students play in succeeding in their academic endeavors. Such learner-centered design reflects our current understanding of the social nature of learning and the importance of community in promoting learning. Rovai [7], for example, presents evidence suggesting a strong sense of community is essential in higher education learning environments He asserts that community helps reduce feelings of isolation associated by some authors with distance and online learning [10, 11]. The Community of Inquiry Model [16], of which teaching presence is one component, is founded on the importance of community to learning
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