Community of Inquiry (CoI) is a complex organism, something that is difficult to nail down in a short space. Given that learners in the mental health (as well as addictions) have complex and sensitive personal issues, there may be a hesitancy in providing an interactive online learning community due to the internet being seen as potentially unsafe. Creating the below infographic with P5JS, then, I wanted to link CoI to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in order to establish its relevance to their own existing practice. Beginning with an overview of what CoI is, its component parts and what the benefits are of each component helps to establish a common understanding and familiarity with terminology:
- The Teaching Presence of facilitators leads directly to creating and maintaining a safe and secure environment for both learning and growth through prompts, feedback, discussion initiation, clear instructions and expectations, increasing understanding and a sense of accomplishment, potentially meeting some safety needs.
- Building on safety, within the context of a learning community, belongingness needs may be met through open communication with the group, leading to a greater sense of authenticity when discussing sensitive and personal topics.
- Reflection on multilevel prompts can generate a sense of curiosity and accomplishment can be promoted within learners, potentially benefiting some esteem needs.
- The learning benefits of intersectional items such as selecting content, setting climate and supporting discourse, only serve to further reinforce these above benefits and help to further meet learner needs.
By starting at safety we are able to ensuring that learners are able to both reflect on and apply learning to their individual circumstances. Further establishing their Social Presence as part of a community, they are also able to place themselves within the broader discussion while generating a sense of belonging, something which is essential for their growth within these contexts. Placing clear expectations on the facilitator’s role allows clinicians to see how a clinical context may be adjusted to an online space.
It is hoped that, in tying Maslow’s work to each of the three presences, the reflection on how a safe environment may be created, as well as how it may benefit learners, may encourage the uptake of these types of environments for learners within an online mental health context.
(EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that there may be an issue viewing certain parts of text, including some headings. If this is the case, please refer to this link instead for a PNG-based version of the same infographic.)