Considering how disciplinary differences matter for successful online learning through the Community of Inquiry lens

The purpose of this study was to explore how students' perceptions of the Community of Inquiry presences and their components influence their affective learning outcomes are varied across academic disciplines. Twenty-three undergraduate students were recruited from different academic disciplines, interviewed, and their data were analyzed using a constant-comparative method. The results of this research indicate that students perceive teaching presence components as important for their successful online learning experiences, regardless of academic discipline. For social presence, some differences were found according to academic areas. Most interviewees, except for those from the hard-applied disciplines (e.g., engineering, information sciences), perceived the importance of social presence components for achieving learning outcomes. Finally, this research found that students from different disciplines may put more emphasis or value on particular types of learning activities or learning resources that influence their affective learning outcomes. Overall, this research implies the importance of considering discipline-specific differences in the nature of knowledge, preferred learning activities, and student presences. Implications and future research are discussed.