The Community of Inquiry Model Training for Beginners: Patterns of Interaction and Student Learning Strategies

Online discussion forums have the potential for nurturing critical thinking skills. Online collaborative learning requires students to have learning skill to participate in discourse and interact with learning materials. An initial study conducted on first-year students of Universitas Indonesia shows that they have the ability to utilize technology for learning; however, they need to develop the ability to interact within e-learning community. In this study, we propose a training design to improve students' preparedness to take active parts in online discussion forums. One hundred and five computer science students were involved in the study. A cognitive apprenticeship approach was applied to run the training. The results show that students exhibit certain learning strategies. In addition, the level of social, cognitive, and teaching presences during the four-phases of discussion follow the same pattern.