Exploring Relationships Between Undergraduate Students’ Perceived Community of Inquiry, Engagement, and Shared Metacognition in Asynchronous Online Courses

This study examined asynchronous online courses that were pre‑designed with the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to foster teaching presence (TP), cognitive presence (CP), and social presence (SP). It focused on how these CoI elements relate to student engagement and shared metacognition in activities such as case‑based discussions, peer reviews, role‑based tasks, Practical Inquiry Model‑based learning, and scenario‑based exercises. The findings revealed that students perceived shared metacognition more strongly than they did the individual CoI presences or engagement. All three presences were significantly and positively correlated; CP linked to both TP and SP, and TP also correlated with SP. Every presence was meaningfully associated with overall engagement, though TP and SP showed only weak to moderate but significant correlations with engagement, unlike performance measures. CP and TP correlated with shared metacognition in both self‑regulation and co‑regulation aspects; SP did not correlate significantly with self‑regulation. Overall engagement correlated with shared metacognition, and self‑regulation was strongly associated with both self- and co‑regulation. These results suggest that courses deliberately built around the CoI framework can enhance shared metacognition through their presences and, consequently, student engagement. The study offers practical insights for instructional designers, educators, and researchers who aim to strengthen undergraduate group work and support regulated, engaged learning.