Designing for communities of inquiry in online courses

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) is a pedagogical model that supports digital teaching and learning. The introductory-level Designing for Communities of Inquiry in Online Courses massive open online course (MOOC) will explore the why and how of using the CoI as the basis for developing and teaching high quality online and blended courses. This free, 5-week MOOC provided by the Commonwealth of Learning in partnership with Athabasca University is open to administrators, teachers, and other educational professionals.

This course will highlight practical ways of helping students learn through active participation and shared sense-making. Current Col application issues related to shared metacognition, learning analytics, and artificial intelligence will also be explored in this highly engaging inquiry-based MOOC.

The Col provides a meaningful 21st century framework for digital education pedagogy. Educators, designers, and administrators will all benefit from taking this course to learn about the Col and how it supports learning, now and into the future.

During this MOOC, you will:

• Discuss the important foundational elements of online learning
• Describe the philosophical and theoretical foundations of the CoI Model
• Identify the three components of the CoI and their design elements
• Apply CoI standard and emerging design elements as tested in recent research
• Use the CoI survey to review courses and programmes and conduct action research on building CoI
• Design a Col Implementation plan for an online course and beyond