Exploring Community of Inquiry in Virtual Learning Environments

EL Hassane Ait Ali*, Hassan II University of Casablanca

https://doi.org/10.9743/JEO.2025.22.1.23

Abstract

The Community of Inquiry (COI) framework theory, developed by Garrison et al. (1999), is an established theoretical framework in distant and online learning. The purpose of this study is to discover more about how university students view instructors’ presence and how it affects their motivation and learning outcomes. Data were gathered using the Community of Inquiry Survey Instrument (Arbaugh et al., 2008), which was distributed to students at Hassan II University in Casablanca. Of the 340 questionnaires that were distributed, 300 were gathered, checked, and validated. With the aid of SPSS and SmartPls 3.2.9, the data were examined and statistically analyzed using reliability analysis, which includes composite reliability, convergent validity, and principal components approach (PCA). Cronbach’s alpha was equal to 0.96, demonstrating a very significant correlation between the three COI framework components of teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. The teacher plays a crucial role in the learning of online students, both through their comprehension of presence in online teaching and in the initial planning of well-aligned learning experiences. They also support the learning processes through continuous communication to achieve coherence of the COI theoretical framework.

Keywords: Community of Inquiry, teaching presence, social presence, cognitive presence