Community of Inquiry Analysis of Alignment between Instructors’ Intentions and Students’ Perceptions in Online Courses

Abstract

According to the Community of Inquiry model, the online learning experience is optimized when instructors properly address three critical components throughout their teaching: teaching presence (TP), social presence (SP), and cognitive presence (CP). Considering these constructs, this study investigated the following questions: (a) What are instructors’ intentions? (b) What are students’ perceptions? and (c) What is the alignment between the instructor’s intentions and the students’ perceptions? Four instructors teaching five online courses with 44 students completed the CoI surveys. Results indicated that TP received the highest score among instructors (M = 4.05, SD = 0.32) and students (M = 4.01, SD = 0.65) whereas SP was the lowest among instructors (M = 2.64, SD = 0.69) and students (M = 3.60, SD = 0.59). Results also identified two courses with weaker alignments than the other courses. A discussion regarding the variations between traditional and distance learning from a different has merit. If enhancing the distance learning experience is a priority, online instructors should create effective social presence opportunities within their courses.

Keywords: online education, alignment, community of inquiry, kinesiology

https://doi.org/10.9743/JEO.2022.19.2.7