Comparison of Korean college learners’ sense of community between full-sync and half-sync/ half-async English courses

As the COVID-19 pandemic has forced schools to hold online classes, teachers at all levels of schooling could not help utilizing various online modalities, suspending their in-person classes. However, no research findings have thus far been reported on the effects of different online modalities in the field of English teaching and learning. Against this backdrop, the present study aimed at comparing the difference between Korean college students’ sense of community in their fully synchronous and hybrid (a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous) online modalities. A total of 165 college students completed pre- and post-surveys, which were the modified versions of Rovai’s (2002) Classroom Community Scale (CCS) consisting of two sub-constructs, ‘Connectedness’ and ‘Learning.’ In addition, a semi-structured in-depth interview was carried out with six students via Zoom. MANCOVA, multivariate analysis of covariance, was used for data analysis. The findings showed students felt more connected with peer students and instructors in fully synchronous online sessions than hybrid ones. Second, students found synchronous online classes more conducive to their learning than hybrid ones. From these findings, pedagogical implications to enhance students’ sense of community in online classes are suggested.