Current Research

I thought it might be useful to talk a little about several research projects I am involved with. The first is a review article of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework that I co-authored with my colleague, Ben Arbaugh. The reference is:
Garrison, D. R., & Arbaugh, J. B. (in press). Researching the community of inquiry framework: Review, issues, and future directions. Internet and Higher Education,
As the title indicates, the article provides a comprehensive review of the literature associated with the CoI and discusses areas and issues that need further research. This article should be particularly useful for graduate students and others who are new to conducting research using the CoI Framework. It will be out in the next issue of the I&HE.

I also want to mention that a group of researchers in the US and Canada are collaborating in the development and validation of a standardized instrument that reflects the Community of Inquiry Framework. We are moving into the second iteration of data gathering and factor analysis to refine the items. Although we have had very encouraging results to date, we expect this will be an ongoing process. The results of our work will be presented at the next Sloan-C ALN Conference in Orlando in November. If others are interested in using the latest version of the questionnaire, please feel free to contact me.

I have also been collaborating with Dr. Marti Cleveland-Innes on a SSHRC research project using the CoI Framework to guide us in the study of higher order learning in an online CoI. While there have been several publications that have resulted from this work, one that might have general interest is:
Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2005). Facilitating cognitive presence in online learning: Interaction is not enough. American Journal of Distance Education, 19(3), 133-148.
We have just begun work on a book proposal exploring developments to teaching and learning approaches in distance education.

Lastly, I would like to mention that my co-author of our book "Blended Learning in Higher Education", Norm Vaughan, is also the lead author of a book in the works (with myself) on professional development for online teaching and learning (both published by Jossey-Bass). Norm has lead our professional development team in supporting blended learning course redesign at the University of Calgary and did his doctoral dissertation on the same topic. He is recognized as a leading expert in the area of professional development for online and blended learning. An article that may interest others is:
Vaughan, N., & Garrison, D. R. (2006). How Blended Learning Can Support a Faculty Development Community of Inquiry, Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 10(4), 139-152.