A Constructivist Approach to Online Learning: The Community of Inquiry Framework

Background: The Community Of Inquiry Framework

The CoI framework (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) is a process model of online learning. It assumes that effective online learning, especially higher order learning, requires the development of community, and that such development is not a trivial challenge in the online environment. The CoI framework is a dynamic model of the necessary core elements for both the development of community and the pursuit of inquiry, in any educational environment. Its three core elements -- cognitive, social and teaching presence – described in the sections which follow, are viewed as multidimensional, interdependent, and dynamic. The overlapping nature of these elements is depicted in Figure 1. At their core is the unity of a collaborative constructivist learning experience consistent with the legacy of John Dewey. Together, the two constituting notions of community and inquiry form a pragmatic organizing framework of sustainable principles and processes for the purpose of guiding online educational practice. The CoI framework has provided perspective and guidance to a good deal of important research on purposeful online learning over the last decade.