Access to higher education pursuits has expanded through the growth of online education offerings. The purpose of this causal comparative study was to compare undergraduate student perceptions of community in the online classroom across different ethnicities to determine if these differences were significant. The community of inquiry (CoI) serves as the theoretical framework for this study. Student self-reported ethnicity was used to group the perceptions of community, cognitive, social, and teaching presence in the first course in a fully online education degree program. Using an ANOVA test to compare the means of three independent groups, this study concluded that no significant differences were found for either community (F (2, 270) = 0.188, p = 0.829), cognitive presence (F (2, 270) = 0.519, p = 0.596), social presence (F (2, 270) = 0.029, p = 0.971), or teaching presence (F (2, 270) = 0.365, p = 0.695). Based on these results, the study supports the null hypothesis that there is not a statistically significant difference in perceptions of community or its three interrelated dimensions, as measured by the community of inquiry survey, among students of different ethnicities in the first course of an online education degree program at a non-profit university in the Southwestern United States. While this study did not find statistically significant differences in perceptions of community across different ethnicities, research should continue in the areas of culture and CoI in higher education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]