Abstract: Cognitive presence, sense of being there cognitively, is critical to the success of e-learning. However, there is no widely accepted scale to measure cognitive presence. This paper reviewed existing theories and related researches regarding cognitive presence and developed a paper-and-pencil subjective measurement scale. Reliability and validity of the newly developed scale was tested against 418 undergraduate students. Three major factors of cognitive presence are perceived level of general understanding, knowledge construction and resource management. Currently, a follow-up study is in progress to improve construct validity of the scale.