Establishing a Learning Presence

Abstract

Despite the overwhelming interest in the community of inquiry (CoI) framework, there is a lack of research regarding the role of students' self-directed learning (SDL) skills in a blended learning environment. This student self-regulation, therefore, serves as a basis for a new form of presence within the community of inquiry framework, described as “learning presence.” Although reports have been made on guidelines for the establishment of the initial presences in the community of inquiry framework, there is still a gap in the literature regarding the establishment of a learning presence. The purpose of this chapter is to report on what a learning presence is, and the authors propose a model as a guide to establish a learning presence. The findings of this qualitative study confirm that students can work self-directedly, and therefore, the combined blended learning design model can be used as a design tool to establish a learning presence.