Abstract:

This study is intended to highlight the importance of the analysis of co-occurrences of categories in a community of inquiry in online education in Higher Education. The main objective is analyzing the communicative richness through texts in online environments (chats, forums and emails) using the model of Community of Inquiry (CoI) based on social, cognitive and teaching presence. The co-occurrences emerge in this process when units of analysis must be assigned to more than one category. The three presences are crossed to determine the type and quantity of co-occurrences that are found between them.
The methodology used in the presences’ crossing was based on the following procedure: determination of the unit of analysis, development of the segmentation procedure, determination of the reliability of the segmentation procedure, development of coding categories and rules, determination of the reliability of the coding categories and sub-categories through a double check review of the categorization and production of a matrix with all indicators crossed. Finally through a deductive process was added the category “Support for Communication”. So, the units of analysis appearing in more than one category and subcategory were obtained.
It can be concluded that online educational communication is a dynamic, fluid process. Communicative richness is expressed by crossing social, cognitive, and teaching issues and modify –expand or reinforce- using paralinguistic tools. This investigation helps to resolve the difficulty of establishing classification systems that correspond to the natural variety of communication. Through this study the elasticity and flexibility of communication in virtual educational environments can be confirmed. Also, it’s established a model of meaning concerned especially in social presence. We see that cognitive processes are social, producing inter-encouragement and complex interaction of social and cognitive actions.

Keywords:

Community of inquiry, Computer-mediated communication, Co-occurrence, Virtual classrooms