Out of Class

Research has found that students’ feeling of belonging is important to many aspects of their academic performance. Building classroom community is an important strategy for developing students’ feelings of belonging and can ensure all students have opportunities to receive and provide help.
Tinto, V. (1987). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. University of Chicago Press. Chicago, IL.

Incentivize and facilitate study groups to normalize students learning from each other outside of class.

Incentivize posting or answering questions online to extend the community outside of the classroom.

Specify appropriate and inappropriate forms of collaboration to help students identify opportunities to collaborate.

Assign low-stakes group assignments early in the semester to ensure everyone knows at least one person in the class.