A Systematic Review of Strategies to Develop Students' Cognitive Presence in Online Courses

This systematic review synthesizes research on strategies used to promote cognitive presence in online courses to identify trends from two decades (2000 to 2020) of scholarship. From initial search of 181 studies, a total of 14 articles published in peer-reviewed journals were reviewed. Results show that all of the studies were carried out in higher education with majority in the United States within the field of Education. Case-based and debate strategies were used the most to promote cognitive presence followed by structured, problem-based, and roles. For the patterns of students' cognitive presence, the majority of student discussions fell into exploration and integration phases with a small percentage within triggering and resolution phases. The study concludes that instructional strategies combined with effective instructional design elements can help learners engage in purposeful collaborative inquiry while progressing through all four phases of cognitive presence to achieve higher level learning outcomes.