This interactive workshop introduces participants to the process of creating meaningful collaborative online student learning experience through targeted teaching presence, underpinned by the educational Community of Inquiry (ECoI) framework (Garrison et al., 2000). ECoI will be used to first address course design and then course implementation (Swan et al., 2014). Tools including guided reflection and questioning instructional methods will be used to consider how a balance of direct instruction and facilitation (Nasir et al., 2018) can help guide learners’ written or audio-recorded reflections based on assigned readings and personal experience. Discipline specific questioning methods will be used to consider how learner reflections can be challenged through the inquiry lens, thereby moving away from superficial discussion responses to more meaningful dialogue and engagement with tutor and peers, ultimately leading to greater learning outcomes (Hambacher et al., 2018). Examples of both individual and group inquiry activities will help participants consider the optimum level of online teacher presence and influence. This approach can help build a community of inquiry, where learners reply to the teacher and/or peer questions through dialogue, modelling and facilitation (Liu, 2018). This thinking-encouraging approach is effective in engaging and challenging online learners, reinforced by an iterative peer feedback loop as a scalable intervention (Fillusa et al., 2018). Considerations include scaffolding, instructional design, and understanding students’ comfort level with collaborative online work (Robinson et al., 2017). Examples of how rubrics can be built to map learner inquiry skill development to programme assignments will form part of the workshop.