The impact of community of inquiry presences on university students’ learning outcomes: Mediating role of self-regulated learning and moderating effect of knowledge-seeking intentions
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This study examines the impact of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework — teaching presence (TP), social presence (SP), and cognitive presence (CP) — on university students’ task performance (TKP) and online learning satisfaction (OLS). Using a moderated-mediation model, the research explores how self-regulated learning (SRL) mediates these relationships and how knowledge-seeking intentions (KSI) moderate them. A survey of 726 university students from diverse institutions in China was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and Hayes’ PROCESS Macro. The results revealed that all three CoI presences positively influence SRL, which significantly enhances both TKP and OLS. KSI moderates the effects of TP and SP on learning outcomes through SRL, but does not significantly affect the CP-TKP/OLS relationships. These findings highlight the critical role of SRL in online learning environments and emphasize the importance of fostering knowledge-seeking behaviors to maximize the effectiveness of teaching and social presences. This study contributes to online pedagogy by offering actionable insights for educators and instructional designers to enhance student engagement and satisfaction, while also suggesting areas for future research, such as exploring the role of cultural differences and individual learner characteristics. The study’s limitations, including its cross-sectional design, suggest that future longitudinal research could provide more definitive insights into causality.
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