The Effects of Community of Inquiry, Learning Presence, and Mentor Presence on Learning Outcomes: A Revised Community of Inquiry Model for K-12 Online Learner

Amid an explosive increase in K-12 online education in the United States, the quality of online learning has become a primary concern for researchers, educators, and policymakers. Two theoretical frameworks, Community of Inquiry (CoI) and self-regulated learning (SRL) have provided especially insightful explanations of how students learn in online settings. The present dissertation proposes a revised CoI framework that incorporates learning presence (i.e., self-efficacy and SRL strategies) and mentor presence and connects to learning outcomes in K-12 online setting from a sample of 696 high-school level online learners. The study yields four key findings: First, in contrast to Shea and Bidjerano's (2010) model, this study found a significant relationship between teaching presence and SRL, and a non-significant relationship between teaching presence and self-efficacy. Second, because learning under the supervision of a mentor is a unique feature of K-12 online learning, this study found that mentor presence significantly predicted students' use of self-regulated learning strategies. Third, when using the revised framework to predict learning outcomes (i.e., satisfaction, perceived progress, final grade), it was found that the hypothesized model containing CoI and SRL can be related to learning outcomes, thus answering previous scholars' calls for a realistic integration of learning presence and learning outcomes into the CoI framework. And fourth, based on a comparison of two groups of students with different primary online learning locations (i.e., at-home vs. at-school), the study found that at-school students showed significantly less feelings of isolation, higher ability in generating curiosity once the online learning starts, higher perceptions on mentor's practice as a problem solver, and higher goal-setting and help-seeking strategies than those whose primary online learning location is at home.;In short, this study is among the first to shed light on the relationships among CoI, self-efficacy, SRL, and learning outcomes in a K-12 online-learning context. Its findings establish the capacity of the proposed theoretical framework to identify important components in K-12 online learning while striking a delicate balance between extensiveness and parsimony. This study also extends our understanding of the mechanisms of online learning among K-12 students, and thus has considerable practical implications for online educators as well as future researchers. Specific recommendations for future research projects are also provided.