The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model views the online learning experience as a function of the relationship between three elements: social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. The proposed panel and chapter will focus on how the CoI framework can be used to guide the design and implementation of online courses through the explication of measures verifying the CoI. In addition, factors external but influential to the model-technology, disciplinary differences, and the role of the online instructor-are reviewed.