Topic 4 has come to an end. For me, a few words from the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework stays in my head; teaching presence not teacher presence. It if funny to think how only a few letters can make such a big difference in terms of meaning of a word!

The theory of Inquiry suggests three key elements that affect the educational experience; social, cognitive and teaching presence. Regarding teacher vs teaching Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R claim that: It is not just the teacher who is responsible for social and cognitive presence issues. All participants in a collaborative learning environment must assume various degrees of teaching responsibilities depending on the specific content, developmental level, and ability. From a cognitive presence perspective, instructor and students must be prepared to clarify expectations, negotiate requirements, engage in critical discourse, diagnose misconceptions, and assess understanding. Participants must also be aware of social presence issues and ensure that everybody feels that they belong and is comfortable contributing to the discourse but also prepared to challenge ideas respectfully.

I think about a group of educators at my university that have worked with blended learning for more than fifteen years. They have obviously put forward a well structured learning environment since they have managed to increase both quality and number of students over the years. They have also understood other parts of the cognitive presence such as clear expectations and communication in order to achieve a high rate of students who fulfil their course or programme.

Over the fifteen years of working with blended learning, the conditions of teaching and learning with technology has changed dramatically. The group of educators has had to adapt to changes and new technology many times and often embrace it, but I don’t think that is the only thing  that has made them successful. The reason they work with designing collaborative online learning environment for students and does that very well, is probably because they live the way they learn and set a good example. The group of colleagues are interested in learning new things and taking responsibility for their group learning process, and I think that ambition gets reflected in the courses they offer to the students.

This group and their development and ways of working, was first thing that came to mind when I read about teaching presence. Teaching presence is a central part in the ambitious, collaborative and prestige-less working environment they have created.

It all seems quite easy when you see it in a well functioning group, but what are the key factors to success? Since I work with other groups that have not the same collaborative tradition or environment, I have tried to identify traits that are important for good collaboration, and in the end meaningful and collaborative learning environments for students. When I go through the list that our PBL-group created for our presentation, I recognise most of the factors associated with teaching presence:

• • TEACHING presence not TEACHER presence
  • teachers and students taking responsibility for learning
  • incorporating social & cognitive presence
  • sharing knowledge, sources, and ways of thinking
  • setting an exemplary way of working
  • facilitating collaboration
  • encouraging engagement via content and tasks
  • enhanced or limited by the course design
  • requires sufficient teacher resources and commitment
  • encourage and benefit from differences in people and ideas

My question after reading through the list again would be If you believe in collaborative learning, can you design for blended learning without collaborating?

Collaboration might not always be the best or the only solution for good education. For me however, working in a collaborative environment with teaching presence within the group has always been associated with a lot of fun and a very stimulating work environment.

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Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. Edmonton: AU Press. Chapter 1 “The Community of Inquiry Conceptual framework”.

ONL192 PBL group 10 presentation in Canva Topic 4 : Design for online and blended learning