title: Building student community in a hybrid program.
abstract: The concept of student community has been shown to enhance learning, empower students, and increase engagement in the learning process. An occupational therapy program transformed classroom-based learning to a hybrid platform with over 70% of the course content online and expanded from one to two learning sites. Based on faculty concerns about occupational therapy students' experience of belonging to a community, this study compared student-perceived sense of community in the first and final didactic semesters of a hybrid Master's program. Using the Classroom and School Community Inventory and a Checklist of 24 Points of Contact, faculty found over 90% of students reported a sense of community with no significant differences from start to finish of the didactic program, or between learning sites. Furthermore, students reported informal, out-of-classroom interactions with colleagues, group assignments, and face-to-face classroom sessions as the strongest points of contact contributing to a sense of student community.
authors.affiliation: Program in Occupational Therapy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schaber
authors.forename: Corey
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McGee
authors.forename: Terrianne
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction; D003479:Curriculum; D005178:Faculty; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000193:education*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012931:Social Environment; D060756:Social Networking; D013336:Students, Health Occupations
keywords: Hybrid learning; Occupational therapy curricula; Student community