Effects Of Online Presence On MOOC Learner’s Satisfaction From Perspective Of Community Of Inquiry

The Community of Inquiry（Co I）theory is one of the most influential theories in the online learning field in recent two decades（Huang ＆ Wang,2022）.With the application of this theory to online education,more and more researchers focus on the relationship between online presence and online learning performance.According to the theory,online presence is divided into four elements: teaching presence,social presence,learning presence and cognitive presence（Garrison,2000;Shea,2009）.Although the research about the effect of online presence as a whole and its internal elements on online learning performance has attracted high attention,these studies rarely take learner satisfaction as an important parameter to measure the online learning performance.Therefore,from the perspective of the Co I theory,this study discussed the effects of online presence on learner satisfaction.Based on the Co I theory,the study randomly selects 320 students taking “Business English Writing” on the MOOC platform for Chinese Universities as research participants to investigate effects of online presence on MOOC learners’ satisfaction by questionnaire.Four specific questions are addressed: 1)What is the overall level of MOOC learners’ online presence and their satisfaction? 2)What is the relationship among the four core elements of online presence from the perspective of the Co I theory,namely,teaching presence,social presence,learning presence and cognitive presence? 3)Do social presence and learner presence mediate the effect of teaching presence on cognitive presence? 4)What is the relationship between online presence and learner satisfaction? Which element influences MOOC learner’s satisfaction most?The results showed that: 1)Learners’ perception of online presence and their satisfaction are above medium.Among the four core elements,the perception of teaching presence is the highest and the perception of learner presence is the lowest.2)Teaching presence,social presence and learner presence have significant effects on cognitive presence.3)Social presence and learner presence play an incomplete parallel intermediary role between teaching presence and cognitive presence.4)Teaching presence,social presence,learner presence and cognitive presence have significant predictive effects on learner satisfaction respectively.Specifically,cognitive presence plays the most important role in learner satisfaction.Online education curriculum designers should change the role of teachers,clarify the importance of learner presence,make full use of the intermediary role of social presence and learner presence,and promote the stimulation of cognitive presence.In short,online education should strengthen the synergy of teaching presence,social presence,learner presence and cognitive presence,to enhance learner satisfaction and improve online learning performance.