1. Community of Inquiry and the Effects of Technology on Online Teaching and Learning
Beth Rubin, School for New Learning
Ron Fernandes, School of Public Service
Maria Avgerinou, School of Education
DePaul University, Chicago
AERA- Vancouver, Canada, April

2. Overview Mixed method study
Extends Community of Inquiry (CoI) model to include the effects of the Learning Management System (LMS)
Proposes a model
Generates and tests two hypotheses
Extends research on Community of Inquiry (CoI) model to include the effects of Learning Management System (LMS) affordances.
Proposes a model to explain the effects of the LMS technology and the Community of Inquiry on course satisfaction
Generates and tests two hypotheses from the model.

3. Community of Inquiry Supporting Discourse SOCIAL PRESENCE
Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education.
Internet and Higher Education, 2,
Community of Inquiry
Supporting Discourse
SOCIAL PRESENCE
COGNITIVE PRESENCE
EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Setting Climate
Selecting
Content
papers
Constructivist model
Cognitive presence: is “the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through reflection and discourse” (Boston, et al., 2009, p. 69),
Social presence: social is “the ability of learners to project themselves socially and emotionally as well as their ability to perceive other learners as ‘real people’” (p. 68).
Teaching presence: is “the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes” (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001, p. 5).
Social presence are associated with student satisfaction, engagement, course completion and actual learning (Swan & Shih, 2005).
Cog presence, teaching presence – less research, but some
TEACHING PRESENCE (Structure/Process)
Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000

4. Mediated by Technology
ALL Instruction in fully online courses is mediated by technology. All of it. So let’s consider that…
What do people do with the teaching technology?

5. Role of LMS Examples: Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodle
Coursework is organized and paced
Learning resources are accessed
Student work is collected and returned
Communication occurs
Among students
Between students and instructor
Feedback is delivered (Lohr, 2000).
\Most online courses are taught in a Learning Management System – LMS. Examples…
… role (what it’s used to do)
Communication can include asynchronous (discussion, , wiki) or
- synchronous (chat, webinar, etc.) If the system allows chat, wiki, blog, voice thread…
What does the system allow you to do?
This leads us to consider the concept of affordances.

6. Affordances … The concept of Affordances:
Definition: What a tool lets you do (Norman, 1999;Bower, 2008; Siemans & Tittenberger, 2009)
All tools have affordances – physical, virtual, all tools.
A chair lets you sit or stand on it. Roll it across the room? Move boxes on it? Rock backwards on it?

7. What can you do with a door?
Ask: What does a door let you do?
A door lets you open or close it. Keep it adjar; wedge it open. Lock it?

8. A door lets you open or close it.
Keep it ajar
Lock it?

9. Slide it
Look through it
Hang plants on it
It all depends on how the door is designed.

10. LMS Affordances
Actions enabled by Learning technologies (Norman, 1999; Bower, 2008)
Some Types:
Course integration
Instructor feedback
Communication
Overall ease of use
What does an LMS let you do?
An LMS that allows all the materials needed in one week to be visually grouped on a single page with contiguous placement of all learning elements makes it easier for students to find the materials (Clark & Mayer, 2008; Mayer, 2005; Vicario, 1998).
LMS designs that allow extensive interlinking with “smart links” that copy from term to term, “next” and “back” buttons, and checklists with links to all learning elements, support integration of the course learning elements and allow students to find tools when they need them.
How easy is it to do these things? How many clicks does it take? How long do you have to wait? How easy is it to figure out?

11. An Effective LMS…
Supports active engagement and meaningful connections between segments of course
Facilitates easy communication
Facilitates formative feedback
Actions that are made easy by the system are more likely to occur, while those that present barriers are less likely to
The last one is our premise – LMS matters because of the connections between ideas and people that it enables… or doesn’t.
This position is not universally supported. Swan (2003/4) supports it; Richard Clark argues that “Teaching technology is like a truck that takes your vegetables to market; any truck will do, you care about the vegetables.” This was opposed by several others – e.g., Clark (1983 and again 1994) vs. Kozma (1991 and 1994); Swan, 2005.
We think that is wrong; the technology matters. To push the metaphor – a refrigerated truck will keep your milk a lot more effectively.

12. Model

13. Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1: There is a positive association between LMS affordances that facilitate finding resources, communication, and using the system as perceived by students and cognitive, social, and teaching presence.
Hypothesis 2: Controlling for cognitive, social and teaching presence, satisfaction with an LMS is positively associated with satisfaction with the online course supported by that LMS.

14. Research Methods Mixed method comparative study
We identify two LMSs with different affordances: Blackboard and Desire2Learn (D2L)
Focus on:
Tools to integrate course elements
Number and ease of communication tools
Interface providing and accessing student feedback
We identify two LMSs with different affordances for structuring course materials, supporting automated communication, and providing student feedback: Blackboard and Desire2Learn (D2L).
- Are there tools to integrate course elements? (Durable links, forward/back; put all tools used in a week together…)
Communication includes number of places to ; availability of automated .
Ease of interface
Feedback tools – on discussion (formative feedback; ease of reviewing student posts, closed and open-ended feedback.

15. Research Methods-Phase 1
Setting: large private Midwestern university
Existing online courses (pre-designed)
Copied into D2L
Used tools to interconnect elements
Used automated s
Study conducted in a large private Midwestern university, using existing online courses that were previously taught in Blackboard.
Copied a set of pre-designed courses from Blackboard into D2L.
All course materials, including readings, assignments, discussions, syllabi, and other aspects were copied exactly,
although tools available to interconnect elements of the courses (e.g., checklists, internal links) were used,
automated s were enabled when requested by faculty.

16. Research Methods-Phase 1 (Cont.)
Twelve pilot faculty
Five schools volunteered to participate
Ten faculty in Blackboard
Six faculty in D2L (trained)
Semi-structured interviews on LMS affordances
Surveys of students and faculty: CoI (Arbaugh, et al 2008; Swan, et al, 2008)
Twelve pilot faculty from five schools volunteered to participate
Ten faculty participated by teaching their courses in Blackboard;
Six of participated in D2L (Four did both).
After the course was over…
Faculty participated in a semi-structured interview after the course ended to describe their view of the LMS affordances.
Surveys were administered to students and faculty via an online survey tool.
Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey (Arbaugh et al., 2008; Diaz et al., 2010; Swan, Richardson, Ice, Garrison, Cleveland-Innes & Arbaugh, 2008) to measure social presence, teaching presence and cognitive presence; this tool has been repeatedly validated in many settings (Shea & Bidjerano, 2009; Diaz et al., 2010). Other items were added to measure satisfaction with the course and the LMS, perceived affordances (i.e. the ease of finding materials: “Once I got used to it, it was easy to find what I needed in this course management system”; ease of communication: “The tools in this course management system made it easy to communicate with others in the course”; and overall ease of use: “The course management system was easy to use”).

17. Research Methods-Phase 2
Extended study to survey broader range of online courses in Blackboard
Student and faculty surveyed
Aggregated the student survey data across phases.
Phase 2. Extended the study to collect survey data from faculty and students in a broader range of online courses in Blackboard. We aggregated the student survey data for analysis across both phases.
As the faculty data is still being analyzed, in this paper we are presenting only student survey data.
Continuing to collect data in D2L

18. Participants 605 adult students
Graduate (N = 127)
Undergraduate (N = 478) students
Fully-online courses in five different schools
Business, Education, Public Administration, Computer Science, and Interdisciplinary fields
108 sections of 43 unique courses
12 in D2L
Seven terms (standardized courses)
Courses were pre-set – standardized over faculty and over terms.

19. Descriptive Statistics
Nearly two-thirds (64%) female
Online experience:
20% in first online course
21% had ten or more online courses
the rest distributed in between
Ages: 19 to 69; average was 34.9
Most in Blackboard (76.7%); D2L (23.3%)
Most had online experience

20. Methods Factor analysis of student CoI (confirmed)
Create scales: Teaching Presence (TP), Social Presence (SP), and Cognitive Presence (CP) scores.
Create overall CoI
Factor analysis of student CoI data – This confirmed the factor loadings
Create separate scales of teaching presence (TP), social presence (SP), and cognitive presence (CP) scores for each respondent.
Combined into a single Community of Inquiry score per student

21. Methods (Cont.)
Regress LMS affordances and student satisfaction with faculty on student perceptions of CoI
Controls: student & faculty age, gender, # online, etc.
Regress TP, SP, and CP, and student satisfaction with LMS on satisfaction with course
Controls: student age, gender, # online
First part of model, first hypothesis:
- Regress LMS affordances and student satisfaction with faculty on student perceptions of CoI
Control for faculty age, sex, # of online courses taught, student age, sex, # of online courses taken, and LMS
Second part of model, second hypothesis:
- Regress TP, SP, and CP, and student reported satisfaction with LMS on Student satisfaction with online course (dependent variable).
Control for student age, sex, number of prior online courses

22. Results
Reduced sample because we only included data where faculty also filled out the survey – to get faculty information (age, gender, N online taught, etc.)
With all other factors accounted for, including satisfaction with the faculty, we found that
ease of communication and
(marginally) ease of finding needed resources significantly predicted Student CoI.
- Overall ease of use did not!

23. Results
With all else held constant, and all presences entered, satisfaction with LMS significantly predicted course satisfaction.

24. Discussion
Hypothesis 1: Two affordances had a positive effect on the creation of a community of inquiry in online courses. Adjusted R2 of 0.57.
Hypothesis 2: Satisfaction with the LMS had an independent effect on satisfaction with the online course, after controlling for the three Community of Inquiry presences. Adjusted R2 of 0.57.
H1 : Two affordances had a positive effect on student perception of the creation of a community of inquiry in online courses. The model was statistically significant with an adjusted R2 of 0.57.
Hypothesis 2: Satisfaction with the LMS had a significant independent effect on satisfaction with the online course, after controlling for the three Community of Inquiry variables (presences). The overall model was statistically significant, with an adjusted R2 of 0.57.

25. Conclusion Technology used in online courses affects student outcomes
Students care about the LMS, in addition to teaching presence, faculty presence and social presence
However:
Ease of Use was NS
“Reading All” had highly significant effect on CoI

26. Future Research
Consider faculty perceptions and behavior as well as student
Compare same class, same faculty, across LMSs
Examine “ease of use” at larger scale
Look at faculty perceptions of the LMS and the CoI., and their giving feedback and other behavior. If LMS affects students – does it affect faculty? (Perceptions and behaviors)
Isolate LMS in large enough sample for statistical significance

27. References
Anderson, T., Rourke, L., Garrison, D. R.,& Archer, W. (2001). Assessing teaching presence in a computer conference environment. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 5(2), Boston, W., Diaz, S.R., Gibson, A.M, Ice, P., Richardson, J., & Swan, K. (2009). An exploration of the relationship between indicators of the Community of Inquiry framework and retention in online programs. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 13(3), Bower, M. (2008). Affordance analysis – matching learning tasks with learning technologies. Educational Media International, 45(1), 3–15. Clark, R. E. (1983). Reconsidering research on learning from media. Review of Educational Research, 53(4), Clark, R. E. (1994). Media will never influence learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(1), Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2010). The first decade of the community of inquiry framework: A retrospective. Internet and Higher Education, 13(1-2),5-9. Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. Internet and Higher Education, 2, Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2005). Facilitating cognitive presence in online learning: Interaction is not enough. American Journal of Distance Education, 19(3), 133−148. Garrison, D. R., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Fung, T.S. (2010). Exploring causal relationships among teaching, cognitive and social presence: Student perceptions of the community of inquiry framework. Internet and Higher Education, 13(1-2), Kozma, R. B. (1991). Learning with media. Review of Educational Research, 61(2),

28. References
Kozma, R. B. (1994). Will media influence learning: Reframing the debate. Educational Technology Research and Development 42(2), Lohr, L.L. (2000). Designing the instructional interface. Computers in Human Behavior, 16, Mayer, R.E. (2005). Principles for reducing extraneous processing in multi-media learning: Coherence, signaling, redundancy, spatial contiguity, and temporal contiguity. In R.E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning (pp. 183 – 200). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Nicol, D.J., & Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006). Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2) Norman, D.A. (1999). Affordance, conventions, and design. Interactions, 6(3), 38–43. Richardson, J., & Swan, K. (2003). Examining social presence in online courses in relation to students' perceived learning and satisfaction. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 7(1), Rourke, L., & Kanuka, H. (2009). Learning in Communities of Inquiry: A review of the literature, Journal of Distance Education, 23(1), Sadler, D.R. (1989) Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science, 18, Swan, K. (2005.) Interface matters: What research says about the mediating effects of course interfaces. Paper presented at the 20th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, Madison, Wisconsin. Retrieved January 3, 2012 from Swan, K., Richardson, J.C., Ice, P., Garrison, D.R., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Arbaugh, J.B. (2008). Validating a measurement tool of presence in online Communities of Inquiry. E-mentor, 2.

29. Q&A
Contact Information
Beth:
Ron:
Maria: