In this first post of the New Year I will focus on creating an effective community of inquiry. This is the teaching presence responsibility to design a purposeful, collaborative and trusting community of learners. When we turn to the practical aspects of a CoI (community of inquiry), much attention has been directed to issues of facilitation. This should not be surprising as the CoI framework is a dynamic process model of thinking and learning collaboratively - not a static structural design template. Perhaps for this reason much less research has been directed to the crucial aspect of design. Design maps most of what can and will occur in an educational experience. For this reason I want to turn my attention to designing courses and programs that are shaped by the CoI framework.

Empirical evidence shows that design influences engagement (Manwaring et al., 2017; Robinson, Kilgore & Warren, 2017); however, it is important to appreciate that instructional design is best approached through the lens of a coherent theoretical framework. In my mind there is little doubt that educational theory improves design and the probability of achieving intended learning processes and outcomes. Design helps the educator identify appropriate activities for implementation that meets the collaborative constructivist learning principles of a community of inquiry. The basis for this is that not only can it help in deciding what the possibilities are but to also assess the progress of the learning experience. To do this without a framework is to start a journey without a map.

Many design methodologies focus on structural issues without sufficient attention to the learning transaction. Design associated with the CoI framework is a dynamic process and not a typology of inert categories. That is activities are developmental that address social and cognitive presence goals. The essences of these presences are also dynamic and developmental. The inherent complexity of a community of inquiry argues for a theoretical framework that can provide a metacognitive understanding of the dynamics of collaborative inquiry. Furthermore, any initial plan is preliminary as it will inevitably change as unanticipated issues arise. This also points to the importance of participants having a metacognitive awareness of the inquiry process. Design before and during the learning experience must focus on the process of inquiry and the progression of the learning transaction. That is, a design for a CoI is ongoing throughout the learning experience (participants are designers) and carries through to inevitable redesign activities.

One of the early projects that used the CoI framework as a course design guide was led by Norm Vaughan (Vaughan & Garrison, 2006a; 2006b). At that time we pioneered the use of the CoI framework to provide an understanding of the principles of a community of inquiry and guidelines for redesigning a wide range of courses. The CoI framework provided a dynamic model for an institutional approach to move away from a passive lecture that fundamentally reshaped the educational experience based on thinking and learning collaboratively.

After these early design experiences described in our book on blended learning (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008), I further developed these design principles (Garrison, 2011). These principles were of course explicitly derived from the CoI framework and were expanded into sets of specific guidelines and suggestions with the explicit goal to support collaborative inquiry.  Subsequently these principles were explored further in an open source book by Norm Vaughan, Marti Cleveland-Innes and myself (2013). I should also note that the CoI framework has also been used to assess course implementation (Swan et al., 2014). This I suspect has a direct impact on redesign practices essential to continued improvement and understanding of the creation of collaborative learning environments.

Finally, I know there are a number of projects currently using the CoI framework to design or redesign courses and programs. In this regard I look forward to other contributions to describe work associated with the design of communities of inquiry and the use of the CoI framework to guide the (re)design of courses and programs. Hopefully this will evolve into a discussion and sharing of practices associated with the facilitation of collaborative inquiry.