An online community of inquiry for reflective practice in an operative dentistry course.

Online learning communities are entering the realm of web-based learning as a means of reflective collaborative learning. The purpose of this article is to describe the formation of an online learning community using a community of inquiry (COI) conceptual framework. Operative clinical simulation dental students at the University of British Columbia in Canada have been involved in an online COI for the past five years. This descriptive article presents an overview of the experiences involved in developing this COI and provides a conceptual framework for an online COI.