The relationships between higher order thinking skills, cognitive density, and social presence in online learning

• The study investigated the correlation between cognitive presence density and higher order thinking.
• The study examined the relationship between cognitive and social presences.
• The study used quantitative content analysis to examine online discussion board messages.
• High cognitive presence density did not guarantee the promotion of higher order thinking skills.
• Social presence was positively related to the quality of cognitive presence.

Despite a considerable amount of research about online learning presences, the quality of cognitive presence, the value of social presence, and the relationship between them have yet to be comprehensively studied. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the correlation between cognitive presence density and higher order thinking skills as well as the relationship between cognitive and social presences. The study examined online discussion board messages (N = 672) posted by two groups of college students (N = 23) using quantitative content analysis. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model was used as a framework to classify and analyze the data. By comparing the cognitive and social presences of the two groups' messages, the study confirmed that high cognitive presence density did not guarantee the promotion of higher order thinking skills but that social presence was positively related to the quality of cognitive presence.