Cognitive Presence

Prior to the course, I did not know what cognitive presence meant. I now know that it refers to a sort of directionality in the development of critical thinking skills. As the authors of Critical Thinking, Cognitive Presence, and Computer Conferencing in Distance Education say, critical thinking involves a critical discourse methodology and just ‘dumping’ a bunch of ideas together won’t do.

My main question regarding cognitive presence is how to accomplish it outside a conference setting. As an OLFM, I teach courses that are pre-packaged and consumed by individual, isolated students. I assume that how the pre packaged courses are designed can play a role in achieving the right method but does this way of delivering course material fall short of what is required for proper cognitive presence?