The Community of Inquiry framework: Developing "Presence" for Meaningful Learning

Course Description:

Are your students struggling to engage in your online courses? The Community of Inquiry (COI) framework can help you create deeper and more meaningful learning experiences! The Community of Inquiry is a systematic framework designed to help students experience complex learning. Through the development of social, teaching, and cognitive presence, the COI provides a holistic, student-centered approach to course development and facilitation rooted in the idea that we all learn better together.  

Although the COI framework was developed for online teaching, instructors of all modalities can benefit from topics in the Community of Inquiry and Presence CDI short course:  

Course Outcomes:

1. Explore the Community of Inquiry framework to articulate the function and importance of ‘presence’ in your teaching
2. Apply specific approaches and practices to improve social, cognitive, and teaching presence in your courses

Format and Time Commitment:

Between April 10-21 (a two-week period) you'll be able to complete this self-paced course content at a time of your choosing. It takes 1-2 hours to work through the materials, complete it all at once or over a couple of sessions. To 'complete' the short course, review the self-paced content and participate in a sharing out discussion in Canvas and/or a one-on-one consultation with an instructional designer to discuss and refine your ideas for developing presence in your course. While the consultation is not required to formally complete this short course, it is a valuable exercise and we really hope you will participate. We learn so much by talking through our ideas and asking questions. 

This short course takes place largely in Canvas and was developed with an assumption of a general baseline of Canvas knowledge. If you are new to Canvas we recommend first familiarizing yourself by signing up for a Canvas training or visiting the Canvas Instructor Guides. When you register you will receive a confirmation email with information explaining how to self-enroll in this short course in Canvas.

You will receive information on how to self-enroll in the session in Canvas in a confirmation email when you register.

Please note that our training sessions are geared specifically toward faculty and instructional staff.

Learn more about the Course Development Institute here!

Photo by Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash