How do we assess the quality of the Community of Inquiry processes?
The use of online surveys can be an attractive option for instructors because they are easy to deploy and analyze. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework has been designed in recognition of the importance of the environment in shaping the educational experience. It comprises of the essential elements which are social, cognitive, and teaching presence originally proposed by Garrison, el al., 2000. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a survey that was based on the CoI and would help instructors understand which areas needed improvement? Fortunately, Arbaugh, et al [11] published a paper in 2008 on the development of just that. The survey includes 34 questions, in a five point Likert scale. The results can be broken down into the following categories:
| Teaching Presence | Social Presence | Cognitive Presence |
| – Design and Organization – Facilitation – Direct Instruction | – Affective Expression – Open Communication – Group Cohesion | – Triggering Event – Exploration – Integration – Resolution |
UBC’s Cost Application
In an attempt to streamline the process of using this survey tool, the the course creators have built an online version aimed at MCI courses. The tool is affectionately nicknamed: ‘COST’, for CoI Online Survey Tool.
The tool is quick and easy to use. Instructors create a link for their course, share it with students, then access the results from a MANOVA analysis on their responses. The tool can be accessed here: https://coi.mech.ubc.ca. A screenshot of the landing page is show below. The activity on the next page will ask you to work through the survey. Results of a survey are presented on the page after the activity along with a discussion.