Exploring the Relationships among Interaction, Presence, and Engagement in Online Learning: A PLS-SEM Study

PARTICULARS	FREQUENCY	PERCENT	PARTICULARS	FREQUENCY	PERCENT
Faculty			Grade
Civil Aviation	169	10.8%	First-year	140	9.0%
Economics and Administrative Sciences	167	10.7%	Second-year	597	38.3%
Education	326	20.9%	Third-year	585	37.5%
Engineering and Architecture	248	15.9%	Fourth-year	236	15.1%
Fine Arts and Design	96	6.2%	Online learning experience
Sport Sciences	205	13.2%	1 year	566	36.3%
Theology	253	16.2%	2 years	912	58.5%
Tourism	94	6.0%	3 years	69	4.4%
Gender			4 years	6	0.4%
Male	869	55.8%	5 years and above	5	0.3%
Female	689	44.2%	Age (Mean ± SD)	21.1 ± 1.6

Table 2

Item reliability and internal consistency results of the PLS-SEM model.

ITEMS	LOADINGS	VIF	CA	CR	AVE	rho_A
TD			0.840	0.886	0.611	0.858
EE			0.938	0.953	0.802	0.939
EE_1	0.879	3.070
EE_2	0.905	3.692
EE_3	0.890	3.251
EE_4	0.915	4.057
EE_5	0.888	3.254
CE			0.879	0.906	0.581	0.881
CE_1	0.779	1.533
CE_2	0.766	1.934
CE_3	0.810	2.188
CE_4	0.801	2.208
CE_5	0.817	2.267
CE_6	0.729	1.764
CE_7	0.722	1.663
SI			0.766	0.840	0.513	0.772
SI_1	0.725	1.496
SI_2	0.730	1.343
SI_3	0.726	1.333
SI_4	0.697	1.553
SI_5	0.712	1.580
SC			0.821	0.883	0.654	0.821
SC_1	0.710	1.302
SC_2	0.824	1.956
SC_3	0.853	2.311
SC_4	0.848	2.136
ST			0.846	0.891	0.621	0.849
ST_1	0.728	1.549
ST_2	0.727	1.551
ST_3	0.846	2.273
ST_4	0.818	2.188
ST_5	0.814	1.934
SS			0.913	0.928	0.591	0.915
SS_1	0.731	1.894
SS_2	0.793	2.522
SS_3	0.808	2.705
SS_4	0.754	1.993
SS_5	0.747	1.837
SS_6	0.786	2.186
SS_7	0.775	2.372
SS_8	0.742	2.083
SS_9	0.777	2.038
SE			0.859	0.895	0.587	0.863
SE_1	0.717	1.616
SE_2	0.801	1.922
SE_3	0.748	1.763
SE_4	0.784	1.989
SE_5	0.817	2.091
SE_6	0.727	1.576
CoI			0.846	0.907	0.764	0.851
TP			0.928	0.938	0.558	0.929
TP_1	0.799	2.628
TP_2	0.724	2.815
TP_3	0.739	2.156
TP_4	0.749	2.036
TP_5	0.774	2.217
TP_6	0.779	2.254
TP_7	0.791	2.328
TP_8	0.770	2.136
TP_9	0.729	1.982
TP_10	0.763	2.152
TP_11	0.724	2.147
TP_12	0.718	2.014
SP			0.902	0.923	0.630	0.902
SP_1	0.756	1.876
SP_2	0.806	2.543
SP_3	0.817	2.665
SP_4	0.816	2.447
SP_5	0.791	2.194
SP_6	0.789	2.243
SP_7	0.782	2.079
CP			0.932	0.941	0.571	0.932
CP_1	0.773	2.399
CP_2	0.792	2.675
CP_3	0.749	2.104
CP_4	0.711	1.863
CP_5	0.747	2.077
CP_6	0.747	2.019
CP_7	0.784	2.343
CP_8	0.794	2.408
CP_9	0.744	1.995
CP_10	0.725	1.910
CP_11	0.744	2.170
CP_12	0.752	2.162

Table 3

Discriminant validity by HTMT criteria.

INDICATORS	TD	COI	EE	CE	SI	SC	ST	SS	SE	TP	SP	CP
TD	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
CoI	0.848	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
EE	0.685	0.682	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
CE	0.659	0.659	0.545	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
SI	0.840	0.611	0.527	0.488	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
SC	0.858	0.703	0.605	0.543	0.696	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
ST	0.877	0.663	0.349	0.455	0.56	0.537	.	.	.	.	.	.
SS	0.853	0.655	0.459	0.442	0.484	0.536	0.496	.	.	.	.	.
SE	0.838	0.841	0.704	0.629	0.660	0.743	0.636	0.678	.	.	.	.
TP	0.740	0.875	0.458	0.501	0.492	0.552	0.657	0.511	0.651	.	.	.
SP	0.758	0.778	0.672	0.500	0.544	0.594	0.463	0.590	0.741	0.624	.	.
CP	0.757	1.016	0.581	0.652	0.501	0.619	0.548	0.545	0.719	0.747	0.728	.

Reliability measures of the PLS-SEM model.

Table 4

The explanatory power of the model.

METRICS	COI	EE	CE
R²	0.580	0.432	0.371
Adjusted R²	0.580	0.431	0.370

Table 5

Tested hypotheses.

HYPOTHESIS	DECISION
Interaction effects community of inquiry positively	Supported
Interaction effects cognitive engagement positively	Supported
Interaction effects emotional engagement positively	Supported
Community of inquiry effects the cognitive engagement positively	Supported
Community of inquiry effects the emotional engagement positively	Supported

Table 6

Results of the hypothesis tests.

HYPOTHESIS	ESTIMATE	BOOT. MEAN	BOOT. SD	t-value	p-value
TD->CoI	0.762	0.762	0.012	63.438	<0.001
TD->EE	0.371	0.371	0.030	12.266	<0.001
TD->CE	0.328	0.329	0.036	9.230	<0.001
CoI->EE	0.33	0.330	0.031	10.567	<0.001
CoI->CE	0.321	0.320	0.038	8.425	<0.001

References

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.55982/openpraxis.18.3.1045 | Journal eISSN: 2304-070X

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Language: English

Page range: 604 - 619

Submitted on: Oct 24, 2025

Accepted on: Jan 21, 2026

Published on: Aug 4, 2026

Published by: International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE)

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

PLS-SEM,

transactional distance,

student engagement,

community of inquiry,

online learning frameworks,

online environments

© 2026 Seyfullah Gökoğlu, Emrah Altun, published by International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE)
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 18 (2026): Issue 3

Exploring the Relationships among Interaction, Presence, and Engagement in Online Learning: A PLS-SEM Study

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