Exploring How Learning Activity Categories Predict Community of Inquiry Presence in Blended and Online Higher Education Courses

Guided by the ICAP theory, the purpose of this study was to examine whether learning activity categories (passive, active, constructive and interactive) would influence students’ perceptions of the three presences in the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model in higher education blended and online courses. Online questionnaire data were collected from a sample of 348 students attending two French-language universities in Québec, Canada. Three multiple regression analyses (one for each presence) were conducted using the hierarchical method to assess which learning activity category predicted CoI presences. The results showed that active activities predicted cognitive presence, constructive activities predicted teaching and cognitive presences, and interactive activities predicted social presence. This study has practical implications for instructional design in blended and online courses in higher education because all active levels of engagement (active, constructive, and interactive learning activity categories) are related to presences, but passive does not directly predict it.