Assessing Engagement and Facilitation
Now that we’ve explored the Community of Inquiry and types of presence, let’s consider how you might measure your students’ engagement and your facilitation.
How can I know students are engaged?
You can observe and measure student engagement in your online course in several ways.
Click plus signs in the image to learn more.
Assessing your facilitation
Ensuring that you establish and maintain cognitive, social, and teaching presence throughout a course can help promote student engagement. The Assessing Online Facilitation Instrument is a helpful checklist for assessing your facilitation throughout a course.
Reflect
Before you begin the next module, take a moment to reflect on what you have learned. Write your response in your journal or online notebook.
What strategies for student engagement will you use this upcoming semester?
Module Review
In this module, we explored the community of inquiry model and strategies for establishing and maintaining cognitive, social, and teaching presence to ensure students are engaged throughout a course. This module is aligned to the core value of Empowering Student Learning from the Teaching Excellence Framework. We are now able to:
- Apply the theories of the Community of Inquiry and Cognitive, Social, and Teaching Presences to your course
- Review strategies, activities, and tools for creating the three types of presence and boosting student engagement
- Use an assessment checklist to monitor your course facilitation
References
Anderson, T., Rourke, L., Garrison, D. R., & Archer, W. (2001). Assessing teaching presence in a computer conferencing context. Journal of Asynchronous Learn-ing Networks, 5(2).
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education model. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105.
Swan, K., Garrison, D. R., & Richardson, J. (2009). A constructivist approach to online learning: The community of inquiry framework. In C. R. Payne (Ed.), Information technology and constructivism in higher education: Progressive learning frameworks (pp. 43-57). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
