The authors investigated changes in students' reported sense of community in the context of a one-semester first-year seminar course using the Community and School Community Inventory (CSCI) research instrument across two years with differing instructional formats. They report a statistically significant increase in students' sense of perceived classroom community, but not school community, from pre- to post-course assessment in both years. Additionally, students' sense of social community is most significantly increased for women, students of color, and first-generation college students, but only when the instruction is face to face. Conversely, no student groups reported an increased sense of social community during online instruction. A significant increase in students' sense of learning community from pre- to post-course assessment was only reported by students who identified as male in 2020, and by no groups in 2019.
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