Let’s Enhance Learners’ Cultural Discussions

Abstract

This chapter reports on a study that examined the construction of a community of inquiry in a blended, foreign language, undergraduate, lower-level course. Students’ asynchronous discussions were analyzed by applying the social presence coding scheme developed by Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, and Archer (2001), by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s (2001) practical inquiry model, and Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archer’s (2001) teaching presence code. The results indicate that undergraduate students were able to create an environment that encouraged reflection and meaningful interactions in online discussions. The blended environment, however, promoted different types of social interactions than those previously found in exclusively online discussions, with a lower presence of cohesive and affective indicators. At the cognitive level, this study suggests that while maintaining restrained intervention, a more active instructor presence is needed for entry-level learners to move to a higher level of cognitive activity — one which allows them to integrate concepts and move beyond simple description of concepts and ideas. In terms of teaching presence, the initial instructional design allowed learners to engage in similar interactions to those developed specifically for the online medium; yet, the author also found that the instructor’s presence is required for the best educational outcomes.