  A strong sense of classroom community is associated with many positive
learning outcomes and is a critical contributor to undergraduate students'
persistence in STEM, particularly for women and students of color. This chapter
describes a mixed-methods investigation into the relationship between classroom
community and course attributes in introductory undergraduate mathematics and
statistics courses, mediated by student demographics. The project was motivated
by and conducted amid the Covid-19 pandemic: data were collected from online
courses in the 2021-21 academic year and from hybrid and in-person courses in
the 2021-22 academic year. Quantitative data was gathered from both students
and instructors and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The primary
instrument was the validated Classroom Community Scale - Short Form. These
quantitative results are complemented and contextualized by thematic and
textual analyses of focus group data, gathered using a newly developed protocol
piloted during the 2021-22 academic year. All data comes from a highly
selective private university in the United States. Preliminary practical
implications of the study include the value of synchronous participation in
fostering connectedness and the importance of attending to students' personal
identities in understanding their experiences of belonging.
