Rubric to Evaluate Online Course Syllabi Plans for Engendering a Community of Inquiry
Abstract: How can educators plan for a viable community of inquiry (COI) in their online courses that adequately addresses student-student, student-teacher, and student-content interaction treatments? At the most basic level, the online course syllabus serves as a plan of action. Many institutions of higher education provide a suggested (or required) format for course syllabi. Generally, its structure only addresses the basic course concepts (e.g., contact information, learning objectives, course schedule, and support services). What if suggested syllabi formats included structure for engendering a COI? What would that structure include? To address this issue, we created a rubric to evaluate planned interactions in course syllabi that could engender a COI: Online Community of Inquiry Syllabus RubricĀ©.