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.

The findings show that in an online tutoring environment, students may spontaneously take on the role of a tutor by aiding their peers and willingly share their knowledge on the subject or a problem. Students’ expressions concerned administrative aspects to understand the course and the sessions, social aspects to create a relationship with other participants and a respectful and safe environment for seeking and receiving help, and aspects to complete the assignment as well as to understand parts of the subject and gain a deeper knowledge. Students took responsibility for their own and their peers learning, took an active role in the problem-solving process, and did so from different angles. They set the frame of the conversation and drove the interaction forward. Through their expressions of teaching presence by, for example, explaining their issues and their previous steps, or answering other students' questions and giving suggestions, students support their own as well as other students’ inquiry process. Students’ cognitive presence concerned different levels of their knowledge, it could concern the completion of the assignments, a more surface level knowledge, or the understanding of the subject or procedure, a deeper level of knowledge. Furthermore, the findings indicate that students acquire metacognitive development, through self- and co-regulation, with their expressions of teaching and cognitive presence.