Interventions to Improve Cognitive Presence and Student Performance in the Age of COVID-19

Abstract

With universities offering predominantly online versions of courses in response to the global impacts of COVID-19, this fundamentally altered educational landscape calls for stronger emphasis on improvement of student learning in virtual environments. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework is a well-known model that includes three dimensions which influence teaching and learning effectiveness in the online classroom: social presence, teaching presence and cognitive presence. In this paper, strategies to implement and improve cognitive presence are discussed. Quantitative assessments of student performance are presented prior to, and post implementation of strategies intended to enhance cognitive presence. Additionally, implementations of qualitative strategies aimed at developing cognitive presence in the online classroom are presented. Examples of instructional techniques used to help students achieve learning objectives from courses in business, physical science, and social science are examined. The objective of this paper is to present simple yet effective strategies that may be used to promote student engagement and facilitate learning of complex concepts in virtual environments.

Keywords

• cognitive presence
• covid-19
• online learning
• student performance
• interventions
• coi model