Online collaborative learning (OCL) based on the community of inquiry (CoI) framework is often implemented in the form of an online discussion activity for teaching subjects that require learners to revise their understandings and invent ways to solve problems. However, implementing OCL is challenging due to the difficulty of fostering higher-level inquiry stages. Such an issue could hinder the effectiveness of the discussion and might lead to low participation. Prior studies on OCL showed that facilitation strategies are insufficient for fostering higher-level inquiry stages. There is a need for an alternative strategy that could complement the existing approaches. Providing a preparatory activity that increases engagement with learning contents related to the discussion topic through a kit-build concept mapping (KBCM) activity could enable the participants to engage in a productive discussion by increasing their awareness of discussion-related concepts and their relationship. Such an activity may help the participants progress through the inquiry stages. This study aims to propose a preparatory activity for organizing knowledge using KBCM to support learners in advancing through practical inquiry stages during the discussion. In this article, we report the implementation of the proposed method in an online discussion about linear algebra. The results show that participants who did KBCM showed a higher rate of triggering event, exploration, and integration compared to those who did summary writing. Therefore, KBCM has the potential to help learners progress through inquiry stages in a more productive way up until integration compared to the traditional method of writing a structured summary. [Note: The page range (323-346) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 323-349.]