Teaching and learning in Second Life: Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model to support online instruction with graduate students in instructional technology

As virtual worlds become more widely utilized in education to deliver instruction, the need to measure learning in this environment will continue to grow. Building upon McKerlich and Anderson's (2008) exploratory study, the researchers of this study utilized the Community of Inquiry's (CoI) Multi-User Virtual Environment Education Evaluation Tool (MUVEEET), and the CoI Survey to measure observational and perceptual data in the multi-user virtual environment (MUVE), Second Life (SL), among instructional technology graduate students. Specifically examined in this study was the existence of the three CoI constructs — cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. Results indicated that the CoI model served as a promising framework to measure all three constructs within MUVEs. Specifically, both the CoI survey and MUVEEET results indicated that the participants and coders experienced a developed community of inquiry during two SL classes.