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Classroom Community of Inquiry: Fostering Student Success, Engagement, and Motivation

Establishing a classroom community in which all students are able to contribute and create connections supports students’ feelings of belonging, retention, and academic motivation (Bentrim & Henning, 2022; Freeman, Anderman, & Jensen, 2007). Intentional community building is thus a key aspect of impactful student engagement and performance in class and much research has been focused on the concept and practice of classroom community. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison, 2009; Garrison et al., 2010), for example, addresses the importance of three community elements, which are critical for fostering a community of actively engaged learners:

  • Social presence: Students’ ability to interact with others and be their authentic/real self 
  • Cognitive presence: Students’ ability to construct knowledge through reflection and critical thinking processes
  • Teaching presence: Instructor’s ability to purposefully design, facilitate, and direct learning opportunities and processes 

It is particularly important to foster classroom community from the start and to continue to do so throughout the semester. “Early and often” is our motto when it comes to classroom connections. However, no group of students is the same and some community-building activities might be more applicable in one course context than others. What can this look like in practice? To help you get envision or re-envision your current practices, we collected some practical CoI examples that you may not have tried yet:

Creating Social Presence:

  • Incorporate social learning activities like discussions or group work
  • Invite students to share their personal and professional experiences
  • Offer a variety of ways through which students can express themselves and their knowledge by mixing up your instructional practices and assessments
  • Use icebreaker activities that foster trust and give students an opportunity to meet their peers

Creating Cognitive Presence: 

  • Offer frequent formative learning assessment and regular feedback
  • Include different resources and material modalities to help students with diverse learning preferences learn key concepts
  • Provide ongoing opportunities for active content retrieval and skill practice 
  • Identify big ideas and concepts and guide students to make connections
  • Let students reflect on their prior experiences/knowledge and new learning
  • Apply scaffolding to move students from lower-order to higher-order thinking and learning
  • Include activities that prompt learners to reflect individually and share with a group

Creating Teaching Presence:

  • Show effective communication and interaction skills: Collaborate with students to establish engagement norms, demonstrate excitement for the course and subject
  • Bring a welcoming attitude from the beginning to the end of the course
  • Provide timely and supportive feedback
  • Be transparent about expectations and evaluation criteria
  • Encourage a positive and collaborative learning environment
  • Interact with students regularly and show interest in their learning
  • Model learning and subject matter skills and strategies
  • Include peer-feedback opportunities in assignments

Ready to get started? We suggest that you pick one to two strategies that you want to focus on implementing this semester. Make sure to reflect on your progress and lessons learned along the way. Questions? Schedule a consultation with a CTL consultant. 

Author: Sarah Lausch

References:

Bentrim, E.M. & Henning, G.W. (2022). The impact of a sense of belonging in college: Implications for student persistence, retention, and success. Stylus Publishing.

Freeman, T.M., Anderman, L.H., & Jensen, J.M. (2007). Sense of belonging in college freshman at the classroom and campus levels. Journal of Experimental Education, 75(3), 203-220.

Garrison, D. R. (2009). Communities of inquiry in online learning. In Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, 2nd Edition (pp. 352-355). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2010). The first decade of the community of inquiry framework: A retrospective. The Internet and Higher Education, 13(1-2), 5-9.

University at Buffalo Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation. (n.d.). Community of inquiry learning environments. Retrieved July 22, 2025, from https://www.buffalo.edu/catt/teach/develop/teach/learning-environments/community-of-inquiry.html