Community of Inquiry-Guided Design of Asynchronous Online Continuing Professional Development for Pediatric Nurses

Nurses play a pivotal role in the provision of health care for children across Africa. With limited pediatric nursing content in undergraduate nursing programs and few available pediatric postgraduate nursing programs, there is a need for additional continuing professional development opportunities to prepare nurses with the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to care for children.

To address this need, and mindful of the unique profile of potential participants, the Children's Nursing Development Unit at the University of Cape Town developed a suite of asynchronous short online courses. Course design was grounded in the Community of Inquiry framework, a widely adopted and researched framework that integrates cognitive, social, and teaching presences for optimal online learning.

This article illustrates how the three Community of Inquiry presences were integrated into the courses.

As evidenced by the examples, nurse educators effectively used the Community of Inquiry framework to create deep and meaningful learning experiences in an asynchronous online professional development program for pediatric nurses. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2025;56(2):63-69.].