Examining reliability and validity of a Korean version of the Community of Inquiry instrument using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis

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Highlights

  • Examining Reliability and Validity of a Korean Version of the Community of Inquiry Instrument Using EFA and CFA.

  • Three factor-structures of the CoI explained 63.82% of the variance in the pattern of relationships among three presences.

  • The final three-factor structure of the Korean version of the Community of Inquiry instrument is composed of 32 items.

  • The internal consistency reliability of the 32 items of the Korean version of the CoI was high with Cronbach's Alpha.

  • The hypothesized model of 32-item structure of the CoI was verified as an excellent fit for the data.

Abstract

This study examines the reliability and validity of a Korean version of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) instrument for online learning. The measurement consists of 34 items to evaluate social, teaching, and cognitive presence and was translated from English into Korean for this study. A Cyber University in Seoul, Korea was selected for this study. Data were randomly split into two groups. Three factor-structures of the CoI framework explained 63.82% of the variance in the pattern of relationships among the items using the first split-half sample. All three presences had high reliabilities (all Cronbach's α > .913 or higher). The three-factor structure of the CoI framework with social, teaching, and cognitive presences confirms the validity of the Korean version of the CoI measurement by deleting two items which cross-loaded on multiple factors. Confirmatory factor modeling approach was used to assess the validity of the Korean version using the remaining half sample.

Introduction

Scholars in the distance education field consider the Community of Inquiry (CoI) an effective and efficient framework of learning within online learning platforms (Akyol and Garrison, 2008, Burgess et al., 2010, Shea and Bidjerano, 2009). Based on the CoI framework, a varied spectrum of online learning contexts has been analyzed in order to understand implications for online learning practices (Jézégou, 2010, Ke, 2010, Morris, 2011, York and Richardson, 2012). The CoI framework reflects the dynamic nature of online inquiry and provides researchers with useful guidance when exploring how a sense of community for knowledge construction can be created online and significantly impact students' learning processes (Rovai, 2002, Shea, 2006). The large body of the literature on the CoI framework focuses generally on online environments in North America and the fact that the CoI instrument is in English has resulted in a lack of research utilizing the CoI measurement in contexts where English is not the first language. To date the single exception is the work by Moreira, Ferreira, and Almeida (2013) who validated the CoI instrument in Portuguese. The Cronbach's α of teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence in the Portuguese CoI instrument was .93, .89, and .91 respectively.

Online learning in Korea has been developed rapidly with the wholehearted support from Ministry of Labor of Korea (Lee et al., 2009, Lim, 2007). Due to high speed internet and nation-wide broadband infrastructure, high quality VOD (Video on Demand) typed online learning content has been provided for online learners in Korea (Communications Workers of America, 2009, Misko et al., 2005). Yet, there is a lack of reliable instruments in Korean to measure distant learners' online learning experience (Min, Shin, Yu, and Kwak, 2013). The positive relationships of learners' presence of the CoI framework (i.e. social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence) in online courses and their academic achievement have been studied in the field of online education (Joo et al., 2011, Ke, 2010, Morris, 2011). For instance, social presence has been verified as a considerable predictor of academic achievement (Chen et al., 2010, Kang et al., 2011), perceived learning outcomes (Arbaugh, 2008, Richardson and Swan, 2003, Swan and Shih, 2005), or student satisfaction (Akyol and Garrison, 2008, Arbaugh, 2008, Richardson and Swan, 2003, Swan and Shih, 2005) in an online learning environment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the reliability and validity of the CoI instrument in Korean as a starting point for expanding its research area to additional languages and online learning environments as well as to provide a reliable instrument in Korean to measure distant learners' online learning experience.

Section snippets

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework

The Community of Inquiry framework consists of three core elements of collaborative constructivist learning required to sustain a purposeful learning community: social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence (Garrison et al., 2001, Garrison, Anderson and Archer, 2010, see Fig. 1). Cognitive presence is defined as “the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse in a critical community of inquiry” (Garrison et al.,

Research context

The Cyber University selected for this Study consists of six departments and 19 programs. Over 11,000 students were enrolled in 2012 and the majority of students were between 19 and 23 years old. All courses in the Cyber University are provided through online education and there is no face-to-face component. Most online courses were in Video on Demand (VOD) format; however a few were structured as including Problem Based Learning (PBL) and discussion based courses. An online survey link to the

Descriptive statistics

Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, Skewness, Kurtosis, minimums, and maximums of the three elements of the Community of Inquiry (CoI). It reveals that participating students perceived high social presence (M = 3.46), teaching presence (M = 3.87), and cognitive presence (M = 3.76). The minimum and maximum values were the same in all three presences as 1 and 5 respectively. In addition, the result presented that the data in this study were normally

Discussions

The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) instrument in Korean in an online learning setting. It was verified that the internal consistency reliabilities of the CoI instrument in Korean were excellent as a result of item analysis for the items associated with each of the three presences. Moreover, this study proved the validity of the CoI instrument in Korean with a three-factor structure with social presence, teaching presence, and

Conclusions

This study provides several implications for research and practice. First, the effect of cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence from the CoI framework on online student's meaningful learning experience has been verified by the previous literature in the United States. Thus, this study contributes to expanding the research area of the CoI framework to various learning environments including different languages and cultures. Second, the results of this study have confirmed

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