Reflecting on the community of inquiry associated with corporate education and the three presences – teaching, social, and cognitive – I now recognize the ‘why’ behind certain activities that are always baked into our materials. Very interesting to put on the lens of social presence, for instance, and realize that the ‘fluffy’ task of having the group create the dialogue guidelines together is about more than creating a fun activity – it’s about creating a sense of community and contribution, which in turns creates ownership and buy in. To retain information, and to understand it beyond a surface level, it’s necessary to incorporate all three presences – bare bones information is not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rethinking facilitation with the purpose of creating COI helps to format the content in a way that allows the creator to take the learning idea and build in all three presences through activities, discussion, and purpose. I used to think of this as the extra (and sometimes the unnecessary) part of the training, but I see it’s actually the necessary part for the learner to truly take in the teachings at the level needed. And I’m excited to go back and re-frame my thinking next time I am in a virtual classroom!<\/p>\n\n\n\n