Development of a Game Communities of Inquiry Scale (GCoIS)

Abstract

This article introduces a new instrument called the game communities of inquiry scale (GCoIS). It was inspired by the community of inquiry framework and its related questionnaires. The purpose of the scale is to explore game communities from an educational perspective. It was validated with 1,275 players inhabiting digital outlets like Twitch.tv, Reddit, and Discord. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were completed, leading to a final scale composed of 14 items subdivided in three subscales: 1) community attractiveness, 2) community receptiveness, and 3) community cognition. The paper describes the development and testing of the instrument. It concludes with implications for scholars and practitioners who can employ this instrument for understanding game communities and their traits.