Considering the lack of interaction and feedback process of the pre-class component of the flipped learning approach, in this research this component was designed with the community of inquiry model and an e-learning environment was developed in line with the model's theoretical framework. By exposing its impacts on students' development of critical thinking skills and social, teaching and cognitive presences, this study aimed to determine the working and failing aspects of this learning approach. In this study, in which repeated measures design was used, the study group consisted of 35 undergraduate students studying at a state university. Scales were used to measure students' critical thinking strategies and their perceived presences, and the forum tool was used to collect student posts. The implementation process lasted for 15 weeks. Findings demonstrated that it was possible to eliminate the lack of the interaction and feedback processes, and to develop students' critical thinking strategies and their perceptions of teaching, social and cognitive presences, by designing the pre-class component of the flipped learning approach with the community of inquiry framework. Additionally, it was discovered that the critical thinking strategy had a positive and significant link with how the community of inquiry was perceived, and that this relationship accounted for 60% of the variance in the perception of community of inquiry. The study's conclusions are supported by recommendations for future research.