Increasingly researchers and practitioners have highlighted the importance of developing a sense of community in online courses and programs. However, many questions remain about the best ways to develop community in online courses. A recent literature review highlighted how influential Alfred P. Rovai's research has been to researchers of…

This research uses poetry as a form of data to explore a sense of 'belonging' for staff working in higher education. Poetic content analysis was explored as a research method and using poetry in this way has allowed for a nuanced exploration of questions of belonging in the context of individual intersectional identities. Following an analysis of…

Supporting trans and nonbinary students in residence halls is critically important given the harassment, discrimination, and violence trans and nonbinary students face. Further, health outcomes are consistently worse for trans and nonbinary students compared to their cisgender peers. While gender inclusive environments are a first step they do not…

The Sense of Community, as an important construct that supports students' participation and deep learning, has two dimensions: Social Community and Learning Community. Peer feedback is an instructional strategy employed in higher education to encourage students to assume an active role in their learning activity. The present study investigates the…

Despite existing empirical work that explores the multiple ways in which students develop a sense of belonging in higher education, there is a dearth of comparative research about the extent to which the concepts of community and belonging are central to what it means to be a student and how students in different national contexts (beyond…

The number of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs; institutions of higher education that enroll 25% or more Hispanic/Latino students) in the United States continues to rise at a rapid rate every year. Yet, practitioners and scholars alike still seek ways to better understand the impact and value of an HSI organizational identity and how…

For many years, studies have shown that undergraduate research experiences have numerous positive effects on students. This study seeks to determine if students get more benefit from having multiple undergraduate research experiences. Specifically, this study considered how students' self-efficacy and STEM belonging changed as a result of multiple…

Retention and persistence models share common components such as student characteristics, institutional experiences, and academic and social integration. However, few acknowledge basic needs (e.g., food, housing, transportation) and belonging as essential to student success. In this piece, the authors discuss two gaps in these models that should…

The percentage of women receiving bachelor's degrees in physics (25%) in the U.S. lags well behind that of men, and women leave the major at higher rates. Achieving equity in physics will mean that women stay in physics at the same rates as men, but this will require changes in the culture and support structures. A strong sense of belonging can…

College student activists catalyze reform on campus and beyond--yet, we know little about how these students perceive mattering on campus. Given that mattering is linked to positive student outcomes, educator commitment to caring for student activists is critical. This work, grounded in semistructured interviews and a constructivist lens, explored…

Inquiry-based course experiences provide a scalable and equitable way to engage students in research. In this study, we describe how we introduced inquiry-based experiences to ten lower-division and upper-division courses across the biology curriculum at a regionally comprehensive public university serving the diverse population in a major…

This paper considers what is at stake in the idea of universitas--a community of masters and scholars --in the context of the shifting landscape of higher education engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the philosophy of Gabriel Marcel, we consider what it means to be together in a university community. We draw a distinction between the…

Given its close links to student success, universities are heavily invested in how they can positively influence their students' sense of belonging. One approach to this is through social belonging interventions, where universities attempt to develop student agency. This study takes a quasi-experimental approach by evaluating the impact of a newly…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) remain essential within the higher education landscape, serving as means for academic excellence and cultural empowerment. Despite unremitting challenges such as limited funding and enrollment fluctuations, HBCUs continue to provide transformative educational experiences that nurture both…

Online education has been implemented in Turkiye as well as in many countries of the world in recent years and is becoming more widespread day by day. Being able to take place anytime and anywhere, eliminating the limitations of time and space, and providing lifelong learning can be described as the most basic factors in the spread of online…