The proliferation of online courses underscores the need to re-examine the foundations upon which courses are grounded. In particular, an emerging perspective in science education requires designers to account for scientific inquiry in student-centered science learning environments. With a focus on open-ended learning environments and grounded design perspectives, this paper examines emerging issues in science education and provides a framework and design principles to support scientific inquiry in online science courses. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)