Online Education Research Adopting the Community of Inquiry Framework: A Systematic Review

Online education is an evident trend in higher education, and likewise, the field of Kinesiology has expanded online teaching. Such expansion, however, was too fast to make a proper adjustment and was not supported by an online specific theoretical foundation. The purpose of this systematic review was to offer an overview of issues and trends related to online teaching and learning in higher education. In this review, the authors focus on the Community of Inquiry framework - which is the most widely used framework for online education research. To that end, the researchers used a systematic review method, which included searching databases (Education Source, ERIC, PsycINFO, and SPORTDiscus) for peer-reviewed articles: (a) with a focus on online teaching and learning in higher education, (b) that were situated in the Community of Inquiry framework, and (c) that were published in academic journals in English between 2009 to 2019. 23 articles that matched all of the inclusion criteria were identified and selected. The analysis led to identifying (a) the characteristics of the online higher education studies (b) instructional strategies and their effectiveness and, (c) variables measuring students' learning. These results are discussed in detail regarding the relevance to Kinesiology. The review concludes by suggesting implications for future research on online education in our field.