Digging beneath the surface: Analyzing the complexity of instructors’ participation in asynchronous discussion

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate instructor participation in asynchronous discussions through an in-depth content analysis of instructors’ postings and comments through the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework (Garrison et. al, 2001). We developed an analytical tool based on this framework in order to better understand what instructors were saying in discussions. We found instructors relied heavily on social codes and were less likely to employ cognitive codes, that there was a variance in the types of discursive interactions as indicated by different discursive profiles, and that students tended to favor instructors who balanced their comments across the three elements of the framework. We believe engaging in this type of analysis can help us become more effective online instructors and provide a next step for research investigating relationships between comments supporting the COI framework and student participation.