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This paper aims to investigate the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on university students during the Movement Control Order (MCO) and Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO). MCO was introduced in March 2020, and the learning process switched from face-to-face to online learning in schools and universities. Subsequently, with the reduced number of daily cases and active cases of COVID-19, the Malaysian Government implemented RMCO from 10th June to 31st December 2020, which had more relaxation of restrictions. This study particularly focuses on students studying in higher education institutions by analysing the impacts of the community of inquiry on students learning performance. The construct of the community of inquiry includes social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence.

This paper provides quantitative analysis, independent sample t-tests and multiple linear regression on the students’ learning performance using the framework of community of inquiry. This paper presents the analysis of the online learning preference of 282 university students during MCO and 456 students during RMCO.

The results showed that there is a significant difference in students learning process during MCO and RMCO. The findings also indicated that the social presence is the most important factor in affecting learning performance during the MCO period and it changed to teaching presence during RMCO. Students lost motivation and could not perform well using online learning methods during the MCO period but the situation improved during RMCO.

This research helps to identify the impact of the pandemic on higher education and provides insights into reshaping the future of higher education system.

Students are isolated from their peers in the learning process and struggle to adapt to the new normal in online learning. The teaching faculties are picking up new skills to deliver online courses and manage the risk as best as they can. This study presented the impact of the pandemic on students learning performance and explored the space for universities as business organizations to provide better infrastructures and platforms for online learning while battling with cash flow and debt level during this challenging time.

Students need peer support and guidance from the faculty team in their learning journey. The study provides a better understanding of how we shall promote a better higher education environment, either blended or online learning.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of the community of inquiry on students learning performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students suffered during the MCO period and the learning experience got better when they were able to adapt to the changes. The higher education system needs a reform and the agency theory in corporate governance plays an important role in the transformation.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the students studying in higher education institutions pre and during Movement Control Order (MCO). MCO was introduced in March 2020, and the learning process must switch from face-to-face to online learning in schools and universities. This study particularly focuses on university students by analyzing the students' motivation, the community of inquiry and learning performance. In total, three factors are examined in the construct of the community of inquiry, namely social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence.

This paper provides quantitative analysis and paired sample t-tests on the students' learning motivation, the community of inquiry and learning performance. This paper presents the analysis of the online learning preference of 282 university students and examines whether there is significant difference in preference before and during MCO.

The findings indicated that the students lost motivation and learning performance using online learning methods during the MCO period. There is a lack of infrastructure to support the learning and social support from the lecturers and peers.

This research helps to explore improvements that are needed to manage such a pandemic to support teaching staff and students.

The COVID-19 is a pandemic that has affected the learning process of the students, and it should not be neglected even when it is over. Policymakers shall consider providing more training and better infrastructures to cater to smooth Internet connection and platform for online learning. Students are not able to focus on learning using online learning methods and, they lack motivation during the pandemic. The teaching faculty also need to be well-trained in delivering online courses and to be more tech-savvy.

With the detailed analysis of the students' learning motivation, the community of inquiry and learning performance, it helps to promote a better education environment.

This is the first study to examine the learning motivation and performance model as well as the community of inquiry during the pandemic. It is evident that university students initially have a high level of motivation and community of inquiry before the pandemic but yield a significant drop during the MCO. The paper presented how COVID-19 seriously impacted on the learning experience.

This chapter explores how four culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse colleagues use self-study methodologies and online journaling to systematically examine inquiry-based teaching and learning in international contexts. Respectively from the USA, Canada, Taiwan, and China, the main research question is, “How can we develop an inquiry stance in our similarly diverse teacher candidates?” For five months, they explore the question with one another in an interactive online journal. The analysis of their written journal reflections result in four main themes: (1) naming and framing inquiry and context, (2) perspectives on translating theory to practice, (3) common practices for developing inquiry stance, and (4) policy work. The chapter concludes with a list of recommendations for fostering inquiry-based teaching and learning with culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse teacher candidates. Self-study research methodologies, Philosophy for Children, and online journaling are also suggested as professional development models for diverse globalized teacher educators.

The syllabus serves as a plan that can be utilized for discussing course (re)design. The Online Community of Inquiry Syllabus Rubric© (OCOISR) was developed for collaborators to review online course plans for continuous improvement. It assesses the potential to engender cognitive presence (CP), social presence (SP), teaching presence (TP), and learner support (LS) in online college courses based on interactive treatments. In one case study, two raters with advanced degrees in instructional design and online teaching experience reviewed 31 online syllabi across disciplines to determine their potential for producing an online community of inquiry. They achieved a good degree of consistency among measurements, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.821, p < 0.001, and 95% CI [0.40, 0.932]. Raters found above-average CP, moderate SP, and basic TP. These results mirrored that of the previous case study at a different institution. Other findings included basic educational technology use in both cases. The lead author, serving as the college’s instructional designer, provided course-specific recommendations to instructors based on their syllabi review for action research. This chapter describes the use of the OCOISR© to maximize student–student, student–teacher, and student–content planned engagement for improved online learning experiences.

This paper aimed to determine the self- and co-regulation influences on the community of inquiry (CoI) for collaborative online learning.

A quantitative survey was used on a sample of (N = 626) enrolled postgraduate students in a South African Open Distance and e-Learning (ODeL) university. The measuring instruments were the CoI and the shared metacognitive surveys. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to determine the association and influence of self- and co-regulation on the CoI.

The results indicated that self- and co-regulation related to the CoI (teaching, cognitive and social) presences. In addition, the results revealed that self- and co-regulation influence the CoI presences. Self-regulation had the highest influence on teaching and cognitive presence, while co-regulation influenced social presence.

The study’s convenience sampling method from a single university limited the applicability of the findings to other online learning environments.

Higher educational teachers who encourage student self- and co-regulation may enhance their online teaching, cognitive and social presence when studying online. The research’s findings may be valuable to teachers to enable them to provide a more collaborative and interactive online learning environment and promote productive online communities.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge about the relationship between teaching, social and cognitive presence and self- and co-regulation within the CoI framework. Furthermore, there has also been limited research focussing on the dynamics of shared metacognition within the CoI framework in an ODeL context.

How can social presence, participation and a sense of community be formed in an online setting without compromising on social connectedness through physical distancing? Under consideration of the goals for an Education for Sustainable Development, transformative science and the social techniques of Theory U, developed by Otto Scharmer (2016), an online Community of Inquiry of researchers, practitioners and learners was to be developed, followed and observed to discuss the question whether and how it was possible to create an awareness-based, future-oriented and socially committed online community that would enrich social transformation processes.

Methods of 1st, 2nd and 3rd person research were applied, as well as group discussions, one Mentimeter survey and one standardised questionnaire with an open question.

Results indicate that it is not only possible to create a feeling of community in an online setting, but also point to the terms and conditions which act as enablers and influencers, like seeing each other face-to-face, collective check-ins and check-outs as well as small group break-out sessions. Video conferencing and the practicing of rules of conduct and communication, also referred to as netiquette, enable a transcendence of the physical distance to reach a feeling of belonging and social presence in the perception of the participants.

In line with global sustainable development, the study also sets an example for how to reduce personal emissions when planning an international conference. Also, it shows how to create online spaces to connect people worldwide, which will support to take over responsibilities as world citizens.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced educational institution to rapidly switch to online delivery. Even if the pandemic seems to be over, online learning will continue to constitute at least a part of the course’s delivery in the future. With that in mind, this study aims to explore the factors that influence teaching presence online and how these perceptions will guide teachers to adopt practices that will impact their presence accordingly. Given the changes implemented due to the pandemic, this study is essential to identify the significance of teaching and social presence in online classes.

Semi-structured interviews were used to find answers to the posed research questions. Exploring the perceptions and experiences of four university teachers, this study, informed by the community of inquiry (CoI) model, investigated the impact of teaching and social presence on the online learning experience in higher education.

The findings indicate that teachers acknowledged the importance of these two elements in teaching online. Moreover, the study investigates how teachers could establish teaching and social presence to enhance the online learning experience.

The study explores teachers’ views on the importance of presence, their practices to achieve in an online learning environment and addresses a gap in the literature on “teaching presence from the educator’s perspective, [since] most studies exploring the student’s perspective” (Gurley, 2018, p. 200).

This study aims to examine how lecturers at a South African university navigated teaching and learning in the current educational landscape obscured by the global pandemic. The authors examine how lecturers employed a community of inquiry (CoI) in their online classrooms within the context of emergency remote teaching (ERT). The study further aims to ascertain students’ feedback concerning current ERT practices at the university toward cultivating a CoI. Doing this would offer more appropriate interventions and support for lecturers and students from, within and for an African context. If not, instructors might risk reproducing and perpetuating the same outdated pedagogies before the pandemic.

A mixed-method research design informed by a pragmatist paradigm was used. Primary data were collected from 40 lecturers at the university through online questionnaires of which 10 lecturers responded to e-mail interviews. The original CoI survey was distributed among 150 students in the Faculty of Education at the university.

The findings revealed that, despite the rushed and trial nature of the use of ERT, there were instances of a CoI among students. The findings further revealed that the majority of the lecturers were not adequately prepared for ERT as a result of limited experience with asynchronous and synchronous online teaching. There was evidence of an absence of a strong active teaching presence that was found to have negatively influenced the development of social and cognitive presences during ERT.

Only a single faculty at one university was selected in this single case.

The results of the study have significant implications for faculties and academic staff who are currently teaching online in response to the teaching challenges paused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings will assist lecturers in developing appropriate pedagogical intervention strategies to enhance strong and active teaching and social presences necessary for cultivating the cognitive presences among students during ERT.

This is one of the first empirical studies to explore the influence of ERT on the cognitive, social and teaching presences at a university in an African context. The findings and conclusion of the study are novel as they relate to the development of appropriate pedagogical practices and intervention strategies suitable for ERT in response to the current education crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of perceived informational value and perceived relational value on feedback-seeking intention in online communities of inquiry (OCoIs). To develop an integrated theoretical framework, the antecedents of perceived informational value and perceived relational value are also investigated.

This study builds on the relational communication theory (RCT) and the social psychology perspective to develop an integrated research model regarding feedback-seeking. Hypotheses were empirically tested using data collected from 262 subjects who are members of OCoIs.

The results indicate that feedback-seeking intention is positively affected by perceived informational and relational value of feedback-seeking. Furthermore, perceived informational value partially mediates the effects of feedback-seeking self-efficacy and learning goal orientation on feedback-seeking intention; perceived relational value partially mediates the effects of social influence and social risk on feedback-seeking intention.

The results suggest that practitioners can promote feedback-seeking by enhancing learners’ informational and relational dependencies on OCoIs. To achieve effective online learning, practitioners should consider learners’ characteristics to provide personalized learning interventions.

This study advances RCT and the social psychology perspective to develop an integrated model for understanding feedback-seeking. The empirical results complement information-related explanations of feedback-seeking by finding that a relationship-related explanation is more important for promoting feedback-seeking in OCoIs. The proposed model also indicates that tolerance for ambiguity serves as a moderator in the relationship between perceived informational value and its antecedents.

While blended learning has been proved to be successful in learning outcomes, the landscape of blended learning has changed under coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Hence, the present study aims to explore first-year university students' perceptions of wholly blended learning during the pandemic, through the three constructs in the community of inquiry (CoI) instrument, namely teaching, social and cognitive presences (CPs).

Survey data (N = 449) were collected from the 2020 Fall Cohort in Hong Kong for quantitative analysis. Reliability and validity of the CoI model is examined, followed by correlation and independent-samples t-tests.

First-year students perceived overall low teaching, social and CPs with social presence (SP) scoring the highest. Findings also indicated that teaching presence (TP) significantly determined CP and SP; SP was a mediating variable in CoI. Students' gender and prior learning experience (online/blended) were not associated with perceptions of presences.

Students today are more familiar with technology-based communication, and staying up to date in educational technology is crucial for teachers. Trainings in online teaching should be provided to teachers. Also, interactive technology should focus on improving peer interaction.

The proposed study is novel in that it used the CoI model among first-year students in Hong Kong during the pandemic. Findings are valuable to higher education in understanding students' perception of bended learning and in addressing issues.