The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a rapid shift to online learning, making the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework increasingly relevant for creating meaningful and effective online learning experiences. However, the impact of CoI presences (i.e., teaching, social, and cognitive presence) on students' learning outcomes has been inconsistent in the literature, and a recent meta-analysis has identified a publication bias in this relationship, suggesting the need for a further investigation. This study aimed to enhance our understanding of how the CoI presences influence students' actual learning outcomes by incorporating learner empowerment as an essential learner characteristic. This study was conducted in two undergraduate courses that were abruptly shifted online due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationship between the CoI presences, learner empowerment, and actual learning outcomes. The results show that learner empowerment has a direct and positive impact on students' actual learning outcomes, and partially mediates the relationship between CoI presences and learning outcomes. The findings highlight the significant mediating role of learner empowerment within the CoI framework and offer valuable insights into the design of productive online learning communities.

COVID-19 大流行需要迅速转向在线学习，这使得探究社区 (CoI) 框架对于创建有意义且有效的在线学习体验越来越重要。然而，CoI 存在（即教学、社交和认知存在）对学生学习成果的影响在文献中并不一致，最近的一项荟萃​​分析发现了这种关系中的发表偏倚，表明需要进一步的调查。本研究旨在通过将学习者赋权作为学习者的基本特征，加深我们对 CoI 的存在如何影响学生实际学习成果的理解。这项研究是在两个本科课程中进行的，由于 COVID-19 封锁，这两个课程突然转移到网上。结构方程模型用于检查 CoI 存在、学习者赋权和实际学习成果之间的关系。结果表明，学习者赋权对学生的实际学习成果有直接和积极的影响，并在一定程度上调节了 CoI 存在与学习成果之间的关系。调查结果强调了学习者赋权在 CoI 框架内的重要中介作用，并为高效在线学习社区的设计提供了宝贵的见解。