Posting Patterns of Students’ Social Presence, Cognitive Presence, and Teaching Presence in Online Learning

Abstract

This case study probes the posting patterns of students’ social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence in an online learning setting in the basis of community of inquiry framework. Qualitative data was collected from 91 students selected with purposive sampling from the Department of Medical Documentary and Secretary, a fully online associate degree program at a well-known public university. Students participated in six online asynchronous discussion activities on Moodle. The data was analyzed through descriptive and deductive transcript analysis. The findings revealed students’ posting behaviors were at a substantially high level for three-construct, and could be enhanced during treatment at a fairly substantially level, different from earlier studies. The most important points behind a high level of social and cognitive presence were addressing the topics based on real life cases and scenarios and designing reflective activities. The findings further indicated that large class size in online discussion could be overwhelming.