ABSTRACT
The rapid learning environment transition initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic impacted students' perception of, comfort with, and self-efficacy in the online learning environment. Garrison's Community of Inquiry framework provides a lens for examining students' online learning experiences through three interdependent elements: social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence. Researchers in this study developed and validated the Learning Modality Change Community of Inquiry and Self-Efficacy scales to measure health professions students' self-efficacy with online learning, while exploring how cognitive, social, and teaching presence is experienced by students who transition from one learning environment to another. The two scales demonstrate strong validity and reliability evidence and can be used by educators to explore the impacts of learning modality changes on student learning experiences. As learning environments continue to evolve, understanding the impact of these transitions can inform how educators consider curriculum design and learning environment changes.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Learning communities have been shown to help strengthen teaching skills, innovation, and scholarship. We sought to understand the impact of an online teaching community among interprofessional graduate faculty at a health professions university, notably in the context of COVID-19. METHODS: The University of Maryland, Baltimore's Online Teaching Community (OTC) was created in 2019 to provide peer-to-peer faculty support and resources for effective online teaching. The OTC meets monthly, online, for a 1-hour informal discussion including a 30-minute topical presentation related to online teaching. A brief impact survey was completed in May 2020, as well as a live poll in January 2021. RESULTS: Membership doubled after the first year; the OTC becoming particularly relevant after COVID-19, including individuals across seven professional schools on campus. Faculty reported enjoying the sense of community, feeling supported as an online instructor, and learning strategies and sharing resources for online instruction. DISCUSSION: An OTC can support, unite, and equip interprofessional graduate faculty members to teach online. The OTC described may be a helpful model for developing and implementing OTCs on other campuses.