Revising the Community of Inquiry Framework for the Analysis of One-To-One Online Learning Relationships

In online learning research, the theoretical community of inquiry framework has been used extensively to analyze processes of inquiry among learners and instructors within a community. This paper examines a special case of community of inquiry consisting of only one learner and one instructor. Together they engage in an online coaching discourse to form a relationship of inquiry. Within these relationships, coachees pass through processes of practical inquiry process while a coach supports the process. In this study, a framework and coding scheme were developed for use in a transcript coding procedure including 3,109 messages from an online coaching case in math for K–12 students. It is found that the elements of cognitive, teaching, and social presence, as well as the newly proposed emotional presence, which outlines a community of inquiry, comprise an effective structure for the analysis of one-to-one online coaching environments. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that a relationship of inquiry framework has the potential to support development of one-to-one online learning.