Communities of Inquiry and the Case of the "Distance Education" Group during the COVID-19 Pandemic

According to the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework, successful learning experiences are supported by the presence and interaction of cognitive, social, and teaching elements. Since the CoI Framework has been widely used to examine the quality of educational interactions, its applicability to non-formal education has not been adequately explored. This research is a case study of the "Distance Education" group on Facebook. It was mainly carried out during a period of restrictions due to COVID-19, when most schools in Greece remained closed. This study explores the process by which shared understanding and learning were fostered in a Peer-to-Peer setting of teachers. Through group exploration and interaction team members were able to provide solutions and answers while focused discussion and smooth functioning were controlled by administrators who were also educators. The results of this research show the presence of social, cognitive, and teaching elements during the discussions. Similarly, the findings of the analysis of the discussions show that they contained content directly related to the learning activities, thus indicating the presence of the cognitive component. Off-topic discussions helped develop social relationships. Overall, when interpreted within the framework of CoI, the results reveal that all three components of an effective online learning experience were present in the context of Peer-to-Peer conversations between teachers. The most important finding is that during the pandemic, teachers had to develop reciprocal relationships and create common plans and projects that helped them overcome difficulties and, finally, reflect dialectically on the extraordinary conditions created by the pandemic. The results of the research can be used by professionals who wish to apply the framework in a non-formal educational setting.