Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a hot topic within many professions in terms of considering the transformational implications for practice. Interest in AI has grown dramatically with the emergence of ChatGPT (AI conversational chatbot) – a generative AI tool that can be trained and capable of creating content.  In some areas such as medicine it is perhaps easier to see the benefits of a conversational tool that can access vast amounts of information and assimilate a coherent representation and possible diagnosis. However, in professions such as education the implications are not so clear. A core question many educators are asking is what impact will AI and tools such as ChatGPT have on deep and meaningful learning and specifically educational communities? The focus here is to explore the potential benefits and threats in creating and sustaining communities of inquiry that support critical thinking, collaborative discourse and deep learning dynamics?

Generative AI raises the question as to what constitutes a quality educational experience that goes beyond individuals assimilating information without critical analysis. ...

As a part of this doctoral thesis students’ teaching presence were studied. The purpose of the thesis has been to explore how students support their own and other students' process of inquiry while engaging in online tutoring sessions, as well as to study how their support can be connected to students’ expressions of teaching presence.

In order to study students’ interactions, chat messages were collected from an online text-based chat system. The method of transcript analysis from the Relationship of Inquiry (RoI) framework, the coding scheme developed in the frame of this thesis, was used to analyze the data. The RoI framework is adapted from the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, adjusted for the case of only one student and one teacher, such as tutoring sessions where the student and the tutor are encouraged to create a relationship of inquiry. The RoI framework adopted the three presences from the CoI framework, but also added the fourth element emotional presence. Using the developed RoI coding scheme students’ messages was analyzed, with focus on students’ expressions of teaching presence. Through analysis of these expressions, students’ support of their own and other students’ process of inquiry, as well as connections towards metacognitive development, may be found.
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