Connecting Technology and Pedagogy (CTAP) for student engagement and learning in higher education

This chapter arises from an Instructional Technology Innovation Fund (ITIF) project led by Mary Drinkwater at the University of Toronto (2018-2020). The goal of the project was to pilot, assess, and refine a set of principles and strategies to support the development of accessible, collaborative, and engaging online or blended graduate-level learning environments that can guide online course design, particularly in times of crisis, like COVID-19. The principles and strategies arise from the CTAP model (Connecting Technology and Pedagogy), developed by Drinkwater, over a period of 10 years of teaching higher education graduate courses in the online or blended environment. Theoretical groundings for the model arise from and connect to the literature from student engagement (Brugmann R, Côté N, Postma N, Shaw EA, Pal D, Robinson JB, Sustainability 11(2):1-20, 2019;Gilliver K, Flipping romans: experiments in using technology for teaching in higher education. In: Natoli B, Hunt S (eds) Teaching classics with technology. Bloomsbury, London, pp. 9-17, 2019;Ingram L-A, Drinkwater M, Across spaces and places: exploring arts and media for democratic participation. In Majhanovich S, Malet R (eds) Building democracy in education on diversity. Sense, Rotterdam, pp. 173-195, 2015;Keddie A, Niesche R, Br Educ Res J 38(2):333-348, 2012;McMahon BJ, Portelli JP, The challenges of neoliberalism in education: implications for student engagement. In McMahon BJ, Portelli JP (eds) Student engagement in urban schools: beyond neoliberal discourses. Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, pp. 1-10, 2012;Montgomery AP, Hayward DV, Dunn W, Carvonaro M, Amrhein CG, Aust J Educ Technol 31(6):657-670, 2015) and communities of inquiry (Garrison DR, Arbaugh JB, Inter Higher Educ 10(3):157-172, 2007;Garrison DR, E-learning in the 21st century: a framework for research and practice, 2nd ed. Routledge, London, 2011;Kopcha TJ, Educ Technol Res Develop 58(2):175-190, 2010). The project deliverables included capacity building workshops, a CTAP website (Drinkwater M, CTAP-Connecting Technology and Pedagogy in Higher Education: Access, Collaboration, Engagement. https://wordpress.oise.utoronto.ca/ctap/), and a Microsoft TEAMS Collaborative Online Learning Community (COLC). Data was collected through post-workshop surveys, faculty support sessions, and interviews with faculty and students. Findings speak to the important connection between pedagogy and technology to increase student engagement and learning and collaborative communities of inquiry to support faculty capacity building. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.

The mediating role of learner empowerment in the relationship between the community of inquiry and online learning outcomes

The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a rapid shift to online learning, making the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework increasingly relevant for creating meaningful and effective online learning experiences. However, the impact of CoI presences (i.e., teaching, social, and cognitive presence) on students' learning outcomes has been inconsistent in the literature, and a recent meta-analysis has identified a publication bias in this relationship, suggesting the need for a further investigation. This study aimed to enhance our understanding of how the CoI presences influence students' actual learning outcomes by incorporating learner empowerment as an essential learner characteristic. This study was conducted in two undergraduate courses that were abruptly shifted online due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationship between the CoI presences, learner empowerment, and actual learning outcomes. The results show that learner empowerment has a direct and positive impact on students' actual learning outcomes, and partially mediates the relationship between CoI presences and learning outcomes. The findings highlight the significant mediating role of learner empowerment within the CoI framework and offer valuable insights into the design of productive online learning communities.

Predicting factors influencing perceived online learning experience among primary students utilizing structural equation modeling Forest Classifier approach.

Introduction: Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the temporary closure of educational institutions led to the adoption of remote or online learning delivery. Challenges, especially for grade schools were evident. Objective: This study aimed to identify factors affecting the perceived online discussion experience of Filipino primary students through distance learning in the National Capital Region, Philippines. Method: Variables such as cognitive presence, teaching presence, social presence, and online discussion experience were investigated simultaneously by utilizing the structural equation modeling (SEM) and random forest classifier (RFC) approach. A total of 385 currently enrolled Filipino grade school student participants were surveyed. Results: Results show that cognitive presence has the most significant impact on the perceived online discussion experience, followed by teaching presence, and social presence. This study is the first study that analyzed the online discussion experience among grade school students in online education in the Philippines considering SEM and RFC. It was seen that highly significant factors such as teaching presence, cognitive presence, social presence, triggering events, and exploration will lead to high and very high learning experience with grade school students. Conclusion: The findings of this study would be significant for teachers, educational institutions, and government agencies to improve the online delivery of primary education in the country. In addition, this study presents a reliable model and results which can be extended and applied for academicians, educational institutions, and the education sector to develop ways in enhancing the online delivery of primary education worldwide.

Introduction: Au milieu de la pandémie de COVID-19, la fermeture temporaire des établissements d'enseignement a conduit à l'adoption de la prestation d'apprentissage à distance ou en ligne. Les défis, en particulier pour les écoles primaires, étaient évidents. Objectif: Cette étude visait à identifier les facteurs affectant l'expérience de discussion en ligne perçue des élèves philippins du primaire par le biais de l'apprentissage à distance dans la région de la capitale nationale, aux Philippines. Méthode: Des variables telles que la présence cognitive, la présence dans l'enseignement, la présence sociale et l'expérience de discussion en ligne ont été étudiées simultanément en utilisant l'approche de structural equation modeling (SEM) et de Random Forest classifier (RFC). Un total de 385 élèves philippins actuellement inscrits à l'école primaire ont été interrogés. Résultats: Les résultats montrent que la présence cognitive a l'impact le plus significatif sur l'expérience de discussion en ligne perçue, suivie de la présence pédagogique et de la présence sociale. Cette étude est la première étude qui a analysé l'expérience de discussion en ligne parmi les élèves du primaire dans l'éducation en ligne aux Philippines en tenant compte du SEM et du RFC. Il a été constaté que des facteurs très importants tels que la présence d'enseignement, la présence cognitive, la présence sociale, les événements déclencheurs et l'exploration conduiront à une expérience d'apprentissage élevée et très élevée avec les élèves du primaire. Conclusion: En outre, cette étude présente un modèle et des résultats fiables qui peuvent être étendus et appliqués aux universitaires, aux établissements d'enseignement et au secteur de l'éducation afin de développer des moyens d'améliorer la prestation en ligne de l'enseignement primaire dans le monde entier.

Innovative Approach to Enhance Active Online Learning: Engagement, Feedback and Classroom Environment

In the community of inquiry (CoI) frameworks, a meaningful learning with technology in higher education requires interaction of social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence. However, it is challenging to create a CoI within an online teaching and learning (OTL) environment especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when educators are forced to conduct it. This paper proposes three innovative approaches for such a community to enhance active learning during synchronous OTL, specifically You Talk for engaging students, Resource Pool for facilitating feedback, and Classroom Meet for recreating the classroom environment. The three approaches were implemented by independent instructors for their respective undergraduates in synchronous online class. The treatment groups show significantly better academic performance than the control groups for all the three innovative approaches. The students from the treatment groups strongly agree that these innovative approaches promote active interaction, enhance attainment of the learning contents, deliver the course contents effectively, assure satisfaction and engage students actively during OTL. It suggests that either approach to engaging students, or facilitating feedback, or recreating the classroom environment serves as teaching presence to support the social presence of the students and therefore creates cognitive presence among them. © 2023, Asian Journal of University Education. All Rights Reserved.

Examinations of the relationships between self-efficacy, self-regulation, teaching, cognitive presences, and learning engagement during COVID-19.

This study investigated the relationships between self-efficacy, self-regulation, and teaching presence, cognitive presence, and learning engagement during the pandemic. A total of 1435 undergraduate students in Korea completed an online survey on their learning experiences during COVID-19. The findings indicate that self-efficacy had a positive relationship with teaching presence and cognitive presence as well as self-regulation. No direct relationship between self-efficacy on learning engagement was found; however, the relationship between self-efficacy and learning engagement was fully mediated by self-regulation, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. Self-regulation had a positive relationship with both cognitive presence and learning engagement. Teaching presence had a positive impact on cognitive presence, but not on learning engagement. However, cognitive presence fully mediated the relationship between teaching presence and learning engagement. In effect, this study lends support to the significance of the role of cognitive presence in online learning.

Can learning presence be the fourth community of inquiry presence? Examining the extended community of inquiry framework in blended learning using confirmatory factor analysis.

Researchers continue to extend the community of inquiry (COI) framework, highlighting its utility in online and blended learning environments for providing a successful learning experience. Recent studies have added the learning presence dimension to the classic COI framework which contains teaching, social, and cognitive presences, to represent online students' traits of self-regulation. However, there is a need to examine whether this additional presence structurally represents relationships with other COI presences. Attempting to fill this gap, this study examines the statistical structure of the extended COI framework (integrating the classic COI presences with the additional learning presence) as well as the structural path between the four presences, using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Data were collected from 205 undergraduate students who were enrolled in blended courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study findings revealed that learning presence has strong correlations with the classic COI counterparts, especially cognitive presence. Furthermore, learning presence has significant positive relationships with cognitive presence and social presence. Overall, the validity and reliability of the extended COI framework (which integrates the classic COI presences with the additional learning presence) had been proven in this study. This study contributes to the literature by providing a comprehensive framework of the extended COI framework, proving their multi-dimensionality and inter-relationality.

Instructors' Social, Cognitive, and Teaching Presences in Emergency Remote Teaching of Chinese Language in the United States: A Qualitative Study

Guided by Community of Inquiry (Garrison and Vaughan, Blended learning in higher education: Framework, principles, and guidelines. Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2008), this study investigated faculty's cognitive, social, and teaching presences in teaching Chinese as a foreign language classroom during emergency remote teaching (ERT) necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic during the spring semester of 2020. The study collected data from five videoconferencing interviews with five faculty participants. The five participants, purposefully sampled, taught Chinese language classes across varying proficiency levels from five different four-year college institutions in the United States. The study analyzed the engagement strategies the participants employed in organizing their social, cognitive, and teaching presences. It further suggests pedagogical implications and future research for language instructors, teacher education programs, and university administrators to consider. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Examining gains and pains of a new virtual internship design

This study investigated how student effort and the course design influenced an online internship in China. A cohort of 95 postgraduate students became distance learners in a credit-bearing internship course due to COVID-19. The course leader applied the action learning framework to prompt student online collaboration and group inquiry. The framework assumes the importance of self-reliant learner autonomy in virtual internships. After the course, researchers analyzed the effects of self-directed learning with technology on a multidimensional community of inquiry in a virtual environment. The study also identified students' narratives that explain how self-directed learning with technology interacted with three elements of virtual communities of inquiry: social, cognitive, and teaching. Findings explain how virtual internships can be facilitated through a community of inquiry model. Educators and practitioners may consider the model to demonstrate student-staff partnerships (Fitzgerald et al., 2020) to achieve quality transformation of internships from face-to-face mode to distance education. © 2023 Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia, Inc.

The Value of Providing Online Students with Dedicated Affective Support, Particularly during Times of Crisis

In addition to academic support, the provision of dedicated affective support during a student's online learning journey has a significant impact on their emotional wellbeing and ability to remain engaged with their studies. This kind of support is even more essential during times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, during which students may feel isolated, vulnerable, and overwhelmed by the events taking place around them. This study reports on the value of such support provided by a dedicated affective support mechanism. Within a case study design, 34 participants were purposefully selected to collect data by using focus groups and individual online interviews. The Community of Inquiry framework guided the study. The findings revealed that although students' dependence on emotional support varied, they recognised that feeling the social presence of a dedicated person who was able to support them emotionally played a key role in their sense of connection to their online learning communities. Recommendations include the consideration of institutions offering online and distance education to plan for a dedicated third party focusing on the facilitation of a stronger sense of emotional connectedness and wellbeing.

Using Community of Inquire to explore teachers' responses to a reading-for-meaning course

Background: Although one of the most significant educational goals is to teach learners to comprehend written texts, the Global Education Monitoring Report (UNESCO 2021) identified that many children and adolescents have not acquired the minimum proficiency in reading even at the end of their secondary school career. South African literacy rates have remained with approximately 78% of Grade 4 learners unable to answer basic literal questions. Objectives: To explore teachers' responses to an 18 h online course on reading for meaning for Grade 4–7 teachers, using the Community of Inquire (CoI) framework. Method: An interpretive paradigm, using a qualitative approach and a case study design, was used for this 18 h online study which was conducted between February and March 2022. Ten teachers were purposively selected for this research article. Results: After inductively and deductively analysing the data collected from the post questionnaire survey and the online Telegram application comments, the teachers' responses to the three CoI presences are presented. Conclusion: When reflecting on the conceptualisation of using the CoI framework, the social presence dominated. The teaching presence became important when the teachers reflected on their teaching experiences. The cognitive presence then interacted with both the teaching and social presences as the teachers began to be more aware of their own changes in how they taught. Contribution: The study found that using the CoI framework was appropriate for understanding the teachers responses to an online course for reading-for-meaning.

Students Satisfaction with Online Higher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The digital educational environment is not new in the modern world, but in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the transition to online learning has become necessary and fast. This offered the possibility to study various characteristics of objects and subjects in the digital educational environment. During the pandemic, universities worldwide were forced to switch to online learning, creating a global educational experiment with results to be comprehended and theoretically reflected upon. The significance of this scientific reflection is important for understanding the characteristics and factors that influence student satisfaction with online learning, as well as for anticipating possible ways to improve its effectiveness. This research aimed to study the characteristics of satisfaction with online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in connection with the elements of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) online learning model. The study involved 808 students (M = 22.5, SD = 2.4 (53.3% men)) from 6 countries (Serbia—30.8%, Bosnia and Herzegovina—8.5%, Croatia—8.9%, Romania—21.8%, Russia—25.2%, Slovenija—4.7%). A total of 808 students responded to a questionnaire measuring the levels of cognitive, social, and teaching presence in distance learning. Satisfaction with online learning has been shown to positively correlate with cognitive, social and teaching presence, and overall CoI presence. The results of the Kruskal-Wallis test showed that satisfaction with online learning does not differ among students with different levels of academic performance;however, the subjective assessment of the element of social presence "Tools and platforms for online learning allow students to work with each other” is significantly higher among students with low academic performance. Satisfaction with online learning and the elements of the CoI model is different in study groups with varying degrees of online learning presence, as well as different in students whose training included different elements of online learning. The conclusions obtained in this study will make it possible to organize the digital educational environment more effectively by managing the elements of the CoI model.

Insights into a Community of Inquiry that emerged during academics' emergency remote university teaching of chemistry in response to concern for students

Background: Effective teaching of university chemistry in an online environment not only requires teachers to have specific discipline content knowledge;it also requires them to have knowledge and skills in technology-enhanced teaching practices. When transitioning from traditional face-to-face teaching into online contexts, teachers must learn new strategies and methods, along with a shift in their beliefs. Whilst online learning of chemistry is commonplace in many higher education institutions globally, the integration of computer and digital technologies in teaching chemistry in developing countries had been limited prior to the 2020 pandemic. Purpose: In this study, the experiences, perceptions, and teaching strategies of university chemistry teachers in the Philippines have been explored during the transition of their instruction to emergency remote teaching at two timepoints during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sample: Data were collected in the form of survey responses from 139 participants representing 35 universities and colleges across the nation. Results: No strong relationships were found between participants' experiences and their academic rank, length of service, or institution type, suggesting university chemistry teachers took similar approaches to quickly adopt and adapt available technologies to deliver the required curriculum. Since the Philippines continues to struggle to establish a robust infrastructure to promote online and technology-enhanced learning, participants had to devise pedagogies and practices that would allow accessible learning experiences for their students by curating online tools that would require minimal bandwidth and low internet data consumption. Using abductive methodology, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework was employed as a guide in interpreting university chemistry teachers' experiences and perceptions about their implementation of emergency remote teaching using online technologies. Whilst participants had limited prior experiences in employing online learning pedagogies, key elements of the CoI framework became apparent through the new technologies and practices implemented by university chemistry teachers which fostered teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence. © 2023 Crown Copyright.

The role of feedback in building teaching presence and student self-regulation in online learning

In this research we studied usable strategies to promote student engagement and learning in the online classroom specifically connected to the development of teaching presence and student self-regulation. A design-based research approach (Barab & Squire, 2004) with multiple methods of data collection were used in the study's design, which was informed by the Garrison et al.'s Community of Inquiry framework and Zimmerman's cycle of self-regulatory phases. Qualitative sources of data included coursework and semi-structured interviews with three student participants, accompanied by text-based planning and debrief notes, and a semi-structured interview with one instructor. The study context was an online course connected to a Bachelor of Education program at a university in Ontario, Canada. Findings indicate students experienced teaching presence directly in the timely, strengths-based and personal feedback they received. Regular feedback helped students know their work was being seen and that they were "on the right track”. Strengths-based and personal feedback aided student motivation and self-regulation, which emerged as important for ongoing engagement and learning online. Recommendations that emerged from this study are of interest internationally to designers of online learning courses, online instructors and researchers in online learning. © 2023

Art-Based Innovation Teaching and Learning: How Do Students, Teachers, and Administrators Experience STEAM Education Online?

STEAM education, incorporating the arts into traditional STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) studies, is spreading globally. The arts component is called out to promote creative and innovative thinking among STEM learners. As with any novel educational trend, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics) teaching and learning methods have been predominantly developing in the offline settings, especially given the creative nature, softness, and tacitness of learning goals brought in by the arts. However, this global digitalization trend which has been further enforced by the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the entire educational field to online spaces and STEAM studies had to follow. Given the relative novelty of STEAM, as well as the new normal of online settings that it has to adapt to, our knowledge and understanding of how STEAM studies will survive the shift to the digital era remain very limited. In this study, we analyze the case of a STEAM-based study program on innovation, which was conceptualized as an offline program before the pandemic and had to transform into a fully online format following the global lockdown. Applying the Community of Inquiry (COI) pedagogical framework we analyze in depth the perspectives of all the course participants—students, teachers, and administrative staff—their experiences, their adaptation to the shift into an online space and the lessons learned. Our study shares theoretical, practical, and policymaking implications on STEAM teaching and learning. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

ATTRIBUTES OF BLENDED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS DESIGNED TO FOSTER A SENSE OF BELONGING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS

Aim/Purpose This article seeks answers to the following: (1) What describes a ‘sense of be-longing', inclusiveness, and well-being for students? (2) Which aspects of blended learning, synchronous and asynchronous, promote students' ‘sense of belonging'? and (3) What are the state-of-the-art best practices for creating in-clusive curriculum design for blended learning? Background For university students, experiencing a strong ‘sense of belonging' with their learning communities is a reliable predictor of academic adjustment and pro-gram success. The disruption to usual teaching modes caused by the COVID pandemic has diminished opportunities for social engagement among students and their teachers, intensifying the need to encourage students' belongingness as being ever more important. Methodology This article surveys the literature, pre and post-COVID, using two complemen-tary search techniques: (1) a systematic scoping review, a top-down strategy, and (2) snowballing, a bottom-up approach, seeking the answers to the three re-search questions above. Contribution The synthesis presented in the paper provides answers to these questions influ-enced, in part, by the Community of Inquiry framework and the Universal De-sign for Learning guidelines. Further, based on our findings from this investiga-tion we offer a set of salient attributes of best practices in designing curriculum for blended learning environments, that is inclusive and fosters a sense of be-longing for higher education students Findings We discovered that belongingness is different for various cohorts. Further, many interventions to improve student wellbeing, and learning experiences on and offline, were built around social, teaching, and cognitive presences. Addi-tionally, our investigation found that blended learning, regardless of the propor-tion of online versus offline instruction, was generally a positive influence on academic outcomes and student learning. Recommendations for Practitioners The set of attributes presented offers practical and helpful approaches to im-prove curriculum design to promote higher education students' sense of be-longing. Recommendations for Researchers We highlight the lack of specificity in the literature regarding synchronous ver-sus asynchronous learning pedagogy that promotes inclusiveness and a sense of belonging, and we detail our plans for future work will attempt to address this omission. Impact on Society As a result of the COVID pandemic, many higher education institutions made a sudden and rapid transition to online learning exclusively. As institutions start the move back to more traditional modes of learning, this paper highlights the considerations to be made in using blended learning environments. Future Research Our plans include seeking student and academic advice and feedback on ap-proaches that foster a sense of belonging for higher education students © 2023, Journal of Information Technology Education: Research.All Rights Reserved.

An Exploration of Learning Satisfaction and Problems on Synchronous Online Teaching Mode in an English Comprehensive Reading Course During the COVID-19 Epidemic Period

In order to explore the learning satisfaction and problems of the synchronous online teaching mode in an English comprehensive reading course during the COVID-19 epidemic period, this study constructed a synchronous online teaching mode based on the theory of community of inquiry and practiced it for one semester. The participants were 60 second-year English education majors, and the research methods were surveys and interviews. The study found that most students were satisfied with the synchronous online teaching mode adopted in this course;the synchronous online teaching mode helped improve learning outcomes;there were problems of distraction and lack of sustained attention in the synchronous online teaching mode. Based on the findings, suggestions were put forward to improve the learning satisfaction of online teaching, in order to provide references for enhancing the quality of foreign language online teaching and blended teaching in the post-epidemic era. © 2023 FLTRP, Walter de Gruyter, Cultural and Education Section British Embassy.

Graduate-level students' social presence experience in online classes: A qualitative descriptive design

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive design study was to understand how graduate-level students enrolled in online classes at a small Christian university in the Midwest described their social presence experience as operationalized in the various components of Whiteside's social presence model (affective association, community cohesion, instructor involvement, interaction intensity, and knowledge and experience). The theoretical framework appropriate for this study was the concept of social presence as it relates to the community of inquiry framework. The two research questions focused on how graduate-level students described their social presence experience and how they described what social presence is and looks like in online classes. The research questions were answered by using a purposive sampling technique to select participants. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with 13 graduate-level students enrolled in online classes at a small Christian university in the Midwest. Using MAXQDA and Braun and Clarke's thematic data analysis, the researcher organized, coded, and analyzed the data. The researcher deductively coded existing themes already present as reflected in the five factors of Whiteside's social presence model, and inductively determined emerging themes such as Comparison to In-Person Learning, Next Steps, COVID, Personality Type/Learning Style, Judgment of Social Presence, and Suggestions for Teachers. The researcher suggested the implementation of videoconferencing tools and the exploration of correlations between personality type and/or learning style with the perceptions of social presence experiences in online classes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Student perceptions of the community of inquiry framework and satisfaction: Examining the role of academic emotion and self-regulation in a structural model

As many schools remain closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, various courses have to be migrated online. Previous studies have showed that students' satisfaction of the courses could reflect the quality of online learning, which is determined by students' perception of online courses. Although the community of inquiry (CoI) framework provided an effective tool for measuring students' perception in online learning, the mechanisms between the CoI and satisfaction, especially the role of academic emotion and self-regulation, still need to be investigated in the online context. The present study aimed to (1) explore the relationships among three elements of the CoI framework;and (2) explore the relationships between the CoI and satisfaction, as well as the mediating role of academic emotion and self-regulation. The data was collected from 461 university students who were taking online courses in China. The results of Structural Equation Modeling showed that teaching presence significantly and positively predicted social presence and cognitive presence;both positive and negative academic emotions played the mediating roles between teaching presence, social presence and satisfaction;self-regulation played the mediating role between teaching presence, cognitive presence and satisfaction. The present study provided empirical evidence for the dynamics among the CoI framework as well as mechanisms between CoI and satisfaction in the online education environment. Copyright © 2023 Xue, Xu, Wu and Hu.

Pandemic pedagogies: reflecting on online learning using the community of inquiry framework

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in profound disruption to geography higher education. A pivot to online teaching required staff to rapidly adapt their practices to novel digital spaces. Whilst many studies have reported the different pedagogic approaches adopted, fewer have evaluated the resultant student learning experience. In this study, we aimed to create an evidence base regarding the benefits and challenges of online learning during the pandemic, mapped against the teaching, cognitive and social presences of the Community of Inquiry framework. We adopted a mixed-methods approach of online surveys (105 students) and focus groups (14 students), undertaken across two undergraduate geography programmes in a British university, exploring the benefits of asynchronous and synchronous online learning, and assessment and feedback strategies. We discovered flexibility in student work patterns and use of technology to facilitate engagement in learning. We also identified key challenges for students such as time management, maintaining motivation, engaging in online classes, and feeling part of an online learning community. We identify best practice in collaborative-constructivist online learning, so that in the event of any future remote pivot, or with sustained adoption of blended modes of delivery, we can achieve a high-quality student learning experience. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Faculty perspectives on quality of online courses in health education and promotion programs

The need to make quick transitions online due to COVID-19 challenged many Health Education and Promotion (HEP) faculty to identify how to create quality online HEP courses. A review of the literature identified the need for qualitative research on the quality of online courses from the faculty's perspective. The purpose of this general qualitative study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of HEP faculty at multiple universities, in terms of the organization and facilitation of their online courses, communication between instructor and student, and assessment of students. The community of inquiry (COI) framework, which evaluates the teaching, social, and cognitive presence in online classes, provided the conceptual framework for this study. The sample included 10 online HEP instructors from eight different universities. An online COI survey completed prior to individual interviews provided descriptive statistics that were used to form the individual interviews. The result of the study indicated that social presence was the most vital component when creating an online class;however, it was also the area that needed the most improvement. Additionally, participants asserted that it is essential that faculty members receive professional development and training before transitioning to online platforms and further, there is also a need for support after transitioning. The results of this study could have a positive social change at the organizational level of universities' HEP programs by suggesting resources to faculty to develop high-quality online courses and providing the support they need to transition from face-to-face to online, even if it is a quick transition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)