Learning and Sense of Community: A Comparative Analysis of African American and Caucasian Online Graduate Students

Journal of Negro Education, The, Winter 2005 by Rovai, Alfred P, Gallien, Louis B Jr

Design and Data Analysis

A causal-comparative research design was used to respond to the following research question: Does a combination of total course points, perceived learning, social community, and learning community in a graduate ALN education course differ based on student race? Two analyses were conducted. In the first analysis, two groups were compared: the mixed-race section and the African American-only section of the course. In the second analysis, three groups were studied. The mixed African American group consisted of African American participants from the mixed-race section of the course and the mixed Caucasian group consisted of the Caucasian participants from the same mixed-race section. The African American-only group consisted of all students from the African American section of the course.

A one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted for each analysis using the grouping variable as the independent variable. Total course points, perceived learning, and the two classroom community measures were the dependent variables. Effect size was calculated using the Eta squared (η^sup 2^) statistic, and interpretation was based on Cohen's (1977) thresholds of .01 for a small effect, .06 for a moderate effect, and .14 for a large effect. Assumptions tested and specific statistical procedures used in the analyses are described in the following results section.

RESULTS

The pooled means (with standard deviations in parentheses) for total course points and perceived learning were 87.52 (7.27) and 6.99 (1.34), respectively; and for social community and learning community the statistics were 29.07 (6.90) and 31.76 (5.66), respectively. Descriptive statistics disaggregated by mixed African American (n = 30), mixed Caucasian (n = 47), and African American-only (n = 20) groups are displayed in Table 1. The overall mixed section (n = 77) means (with standard deviations in parentheses) for total course points and perceived learning were 87.67 (6.84) and 6.97 (1.39), respectively; and for social community and learning community the statistics were 27.96 (7.07) and 31.16 (5.69), respectively. Data disaggregated by females (n = 86) and males (n = 11) are shown in Table 2. Females manifested a stronger sense of social community than their male peers, although the difference was not statistically significant, t (95) = 1.58, p = .12, η^sup 2^ = .03. Inter-correlations between all dependent variables are shown in Table 3.

The first one-way MANOVA was conducted to determine if the four dependent variables differed by section (mixed-race section, African American-only section). Data screening revealed no univariate or multivariate within-cell outliers at p

A one-way MANOVA was also conducted to determine whether the four dependent variables differed by group (mixed African American group, mixed Caucasian group, and African American only group). Data screening revealed no univariate or multivariate within-cell outliers at p

The univariate assumption that the error variances of each dependent variable were equal across groups was not tenable for total course points, F (2, 94) = 3.39, p = .04, perceived learning, F (2, 94) = 3.44, p = .04, and social community, F (2, 94) = 6.08, p = .003. Tests of between-subjects univariate effects showed significant differences between groups for total course points, F(2, 94) = 6.96, MSE = 46.98, p = .002, partial η^sup 2^ = .13, perceived learning, F(2, 94) = 9.81, MSE = 1.51, p = .001, partial η^sup 2^ = .17, social community, F(2, 94) = 10.93, MSE = 39.50, p