Student Characteristics and Perceived Sense of Connectedness in an Online Learning Environment

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Abstract

Within the context of three middle schools from a suburban school district in Kentucky during the pandemic, we examined the relationships between student characteristics (race, gender, grade level) and perceptions of connectedness during online non-traditional instruction during the spring of 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that students’ race/ethnicity is associated with their sense of connectedness in a non-traditional online environment, such that White students report significantly higher sense of connectedness than non-White students. We also found that female students report a lower sense of connectedness in the 7th grade in comparison to males, which increases in the 8th grade.

Authors

• Kenda Nolan, University of Louisville

• William Kyle Ingle, University of Louisville