COVID-19 changed how learning is facilitated at the City. Today, all learning is delivered online utilizing a Moodle platform. From a facilitator perspective, online learning is new, exciting, and full of opportunities to connect with learners in a more intimate way (DeBrock, Scagnoli & Taghaboni-Dutta, 2020) through discussion forums, chat features and collaborative learning opportunities. A Community of Inquiry Framework is integral to the success of online learning at the City as the facilitator leads the learning and enables the relationship between social, teaching and cognitive presence.
Facilitators are required to lead discussions, coach employees, guide and advise and be the cheerleader telling students ‘you got this’ (Bull, 2013). This is completed utilizing a social constructivist approach, where learners interact online with peers, collaborate and complete group work in order to expand their knowledge on specific topics. Learning involves the facilitator incorporating social, teaching and cognitive presences to enhance students’ opportunities to gain knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge in an online environment begins with creating a social presence.
Social presence starts with the facilitator modelling how to introduce oneself and moves to chatting online and collaborative activities. Creating an introduction via video and sharing personal stories presents the facilitator and students as ‘real people’ with flaws and challenges (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000). Once peers are perceived as real people, online chatting with each other via Slack and collaborative activities are easier to complete because there is a feeling of community and belonging. Students are comfortable with each other and the facilitator must ensure teaching presence supports learning outcomes.
Teaching presence involves the creation of course content that is relevant to the students. Students want to learn new concepts that can be applied to their jobs. The facilitator must scaffold content, ensuring chunking of new information and reviewing previously learned concepts (Lynch, 2016). As new concepts are taught, feedback should be provided to build confidence and confirm understanding. Teaching presence in a Moodle environment provides the dialogue and touch points that perhaps face to face learning does not offer to students and facilitators.
Cognitive presence encompasses the interrelationship between social and teaching presence. In order to learn new skills or enhance existing skills, students enroll in learning events that are applicable to their position with the City. Incorporating the Practical Inquiry Model (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2001) which promotes groups of students working together as a team, exploring information and researching concepts, reflecting through facilitated discourse and emerging with a solution builds confidence in their abilities. As students collaboratively work together, the facilitator continues to coach, lead, guide and advise to create an open, transparent and successful learning environment.
The facilitator role encompasses social, teaching and cognitive presences and provides students opportunities for deep and meaningful learning. Students feel a sense of accomplishment when they are satisfied with the facilitator and their learning (Huang, Hurt, Richardson, Swan & Caskurlu, 2020). In addition, the three presences, facilitated correctly, create confident knowledgeable students who have the ability to apply new skills to their jobs.
Link to video below:
Community of Inquiry Framework
References
Bull, B. (2013, June3). Eight Roles of an Affective Online Teacher [Blog post]. Retrieved from Faculty Focus website: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/eight-roles-of-an-effective-online-teacher/
DeBrock, L., Scagnoli, N., & Taghaboni-Dutta, F., (2020). How to make learning more intimate and engaging for students (opinion). Inside Higher Ed., Retrieved from: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/03/18/how-make-online-learning-more-intimate-and-engaging-students-opinion#.X1F2jSefA6g.link
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87−105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2001). Critical thinking and computer conferencing: A model and tool to assess cognitive presence. American Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 7−23. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251400380_Critical_Thinking_and_Computer_Conferencing_A_Model_and_Tool_to_Assess_Cognitive_Presence/stats
Huang, W., Hurt, A., Richardson, J.D., Swan, K., & Caskurlu, S. (2020). Community of Inquiry Framework, Purdue Repository for Online Teaching and Learning. https://www.purdue.edu/innovativelearning/supporting-instruction/portal/files/4_Community_of_Inquiry_Framework.pdf
Huang, W., Hurt, A., Richardson, J.D., & Swan, K. (2018). Social Presence – Student Engagement, Purdue Repository for Online Teaching and Learning. https://www.purdue.edu/innovativelearning/supporting-instruction/portal/files/18_Social_Presence_Student_Engagement.pdf
Lynch, J. (2016) Teaching Presence [White Paper]. Pearson Education Inc. https://www.pearsoned.com/wp-content/uploads/INSTR6230_TeachingPresence_WP_f.pdf
Shea, P., & Bidjerano, T. (2010). Learning presence: Towards a theory of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and the development of a communities of inquiry in online and blended learning environments. Computers and Education, 55(4), 1721–1731. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.07.017
Types of Presence, Cognitive and Social Presence, University of California, Davis Website, https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/34528/pages/types-of-presence-cognitive-and-social-presence
Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. (pp. 45 – 61) Athabasca University Press. https://read.aupress.ca/read/teaching-in-blended-learning-environments/section/43261c4a-6d4c-44cf-8c7f-60bc306eb03a
September 7, 2020 at 10:25 pm
Hi Caroline,
I really enjoyed your blog post. Your thoughts are organized and clear. I like the way you synthesized readings and linked them together.
I was wondering why did you consider scaffolding as a teaching presence strategy? In my blog post, I referred to scaffolding as a cognitive presence strategy as Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, (2000) state that the focus of cognitive presence is to help students develop the means to move beyond the early stages of learning – to the stage where learning has meaning and where they can understand and apply new concepts. Scaffolding content is therefore the way facilitators could follow to move their students to the desired learning stage when they are able to connect ideas and apply new ideas. Reading your blog post made me think can we use scaffolding as teaching and cognitive strategies at the same time for different reasons? I don’t know the answer to this question, but I do believe we can. CoI 3 presence can be used interchangeably, so do their strategies?
September 8, 2020 at 5:28 pm
Hi Tala Thank you for your comments. They are making me reflect on my infographic and blog post. My perspective is that teaching presence includes course design, facilitating discourse and direct instruction. To this end, scaffolding information and student understanding is important and I consider it as part of direct instruction. Perhaps I’m thinking about how I learn. I have to take pieces of information and link them together to make all the puzzle pieces fit together. Reading material – actually anything – doesn’t mean I understand it or understand how it fits together. That said, I can see how a facilitator could scaffold information in cognitive presence through connecting ideas and facilitated discourse. In my perspective COI provides us the framework and there is overlap from one presence to another. Caroline