Article Title
Examining Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presences in an Online Teacher Development Course Using WhatsApp and Community of Inquiry
Abstract
Advancements in mobile digital technologies have raised the interest of researchers and educators for their potential for educational purposes (Crompton, 2013; Gunter & Braga, 2018; Gunter & Reeves, 2018; Kukulska-Hulme, 2015;Pegrum, 2014; Pegrum, Huwitt, & Striepe, 2013), especially WhatsApp, a Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) application that has gained popularity as a communication medium. Although the potential of this application for teaching and learning has been recognized by studies in the field of education in different areas, further research should be conducted in order to investigate whether WhatsApp is appropriate to accommodate interactions of higher-order thinking in initiatives designed for discussions and peer collaboration.
The study reported in this paper sought to address this issue by answer the following questions based on the community of Inquiry (COI) model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000): (a) How often do students express cognitive, teacher, and social presence during online discussions via WhatsApp? and (b) When does cognitive, teacher, and social presence occur most often during online discussions via WhatsApp?