Moderating Relationships: Online Learners' Cognitive Presence and Non-designer Instructor's Teaching Presence

Abstract

Adult online learners represent the largest demographic in higher education. Academic leaders increasingly use non-designer instructors (NDIs) to meet demands. NDIs have little control over course design, part of teaching presence valued by learners. This quantitative, predictive correlational study investigated 1) to what frequency online learners’ perceptions of their NDIs’ teaching presence predicted learners’ cognitive presence; and 2) to what frequency did learners’ use of instructional media resources moderate that predictive relationship, while enrolled in online courses in a private, non-profit university in the western United States. Using The Community of Inquiry (COI) survey, this study measured learners’ perceptions of presence as they related to online students’ learning and use of instructional media. Multiple regression analyses tested both hypotheses (n = 128). The first null hypothesis was rejected revealing NDIs’ teaching presence significantly predicted 52% of the variance of learners’ cognitive presence, R² = .524, p < .001, f² = 1.08. These findings expand scientific knowledge to the instructional context of NDIs and confirm prior research that found a similar role for teaching presence on cognitive presence. The study failed to reject the null hypothesis for research question two. Frequencies of instructional media use showed a nonsignificant effect on the predictive role of teaching presence on cognitive presence. Further research could examine the unique contributions of the course design sub-factor of teaching presence in the context of courses taught by NDIs.