The theoretical frameworks that best relate to my research question are the Community of Inquiry (CoI) and the Community of Practice (CoP). I am interested in exploring how aspects of a CoI and a CoP can be intentionally established and promoted in an online student onboarding program to help increase student retention prior to and during the first term of studies, especially for newly admitted students from underprivileged communities.

In the setting of an onboarding program, the objective of the program is to build a community and sense of belonging for the new students in order to increase commitment to successfully enroll in courses and begin their studies. However, a new student onboarding program will likely not have any formal assessments or grades associated with the activities. In a CoI, participants can engage and learn effectively and collaboratively through the development of the three presences: cognitive, social, and teaching (Garrison et al., 2000). In this case, how do we increase and gauge engagement (cognitive and social presences) without formal assessment, and how do we leverage the facilitator role (teaching presence) to keep the environment safe, open, risk-free, and student-driven?

Additionally, I hope to learn more about the differences between the Community of Inquiry (CoI) and the Community of Practice (CoP). Currently, I understand the CoI as a community for collaborative, student-led learning and constructing meaning. Meanwhile, the CoP describes more of the culture, language, tools, and expectations of how community members engage with one another to learn collectively, or as Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2015) said: “a tribe learning to survive.” Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2015) also mentioned that the CoP is a valuable opportunity to allow members to gain access to colleagues. For an onboarding program, this access can allow new students to network with not only their newly admitted peers, but also senior students, student support staff, and faculty.

Both the CoI and CoP are heavily influenced by student-to-student interactions and the resulting community is a product of their engagement. I wonder whether the CoI or CoP better applies to the scenario of a new student onboarding program, or whether aspects of both need to be incorporated in order to achieve better outcomes. Are the CoI and CoP distinct ecosystems or does the establishment of one depend on concurrent establishment of the other?

References

Garrison, R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in 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

Wenger-Trayner, E., & Wenger-Trayner, B. (2015). An introduction to communities of practice: a brief overview of the concept and its uses. https://www.wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice