Revised Community of Inquiry as a Theoretical Foundation for understanding Students’ Blended Learning Experiences

Abstract

Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) is one of the buzzwords that changed many facets of a human being’s life. Great emphasis is placed on the revolution in industries including education sector due to IR4.0. IR4.0 provides the opportunity to integrate more technology and innovation in teaching and learning process particularly during this pandemic of Covid-19. As a result of technology integration, myriad ways of teaching and learning were introduced such as machine learning, futuristic learning and the most common approach was blended learning. Blended learning is a form of educational technology which integrates both face to face and web-based learning. This approach is employed widely in many higher learning institutions, nevertheless very less research focused on the theoretical foundations for learners’ blended learning experiences. The purpose of this paper is to propose Revised Community of Inquiry as a theoretical foundation for understanding blended learning experiences of students. Revised Community of Inquiry is one of the frameworks evolved based on socio-constructivism theory for blended learning and it focuses on teamwork and interaction in learning environment. Main discussion of this paper is related to Revised Community of Inquiry framework and how it can be employed in educational setting to examine students’ blended learning experiences. The paper ends with recommendation of possible research avenues for prospective researchers.