Integration by Design: How Learning Communities Impact Friendship Networks Within College Majors

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Intention Versus Impact: Influences of (Co)Curricular Design on Student Development

Abstract

While learning communities (LC) are increasingly implemented to promote student academic and social integration, little research has explicitly examined the impact of LCs on peer-to-peer relationships. In this study we combine a regression discontinuity approach with social network analysis to estimate the impact of a simple LC intervention—at a large, selective, public university—on the size, strength, structure, and composition of friendship networks among students within the same major cohort. Results of the pooled local polynomial regression indicate that heightened proximity and increased opportunities for interaction structured through clustered courses led to intervention participants having one additional friend in the major, on average, and a 50 percentage-point increase in their share of friends in the LC.

Authors

• Wesley Jeffrey, UC Irvine

• David Schaefer, University of California - Irvine

• Di Xu, University of California - Irvine

• Peter McPartlan, DreamBox Learning

• Sabrina Solanki, University of California - Irvine