The Classroom Community Scale in F2F University contest: Factorial Structure and Convergent/Divergent Validity.

The Sense of Community (SC) in university context is connected to academic success, student participation and satisfaction. One of the most common tools to measure SC in the university context is the Classroom Community Scale (CCS). It is made up of the two subscales Connectedness and Learning (Rovai, 2002). Although CCS is used in both online and face-to-face courses (e.g., Drouin & Vartanian, 2010), its factorial structure has not yet been confirmed for face-to-face courses. For this reason, this study aims to verify the factorial structure and the convergent/divergent validity of the CCS in face-to-face university courses. CSS was administered to 420 students (84% F). The data collected, analyzed using the Explorative Structural Equation Model, partially confirm the original bifactorial structure and the two factors show good internal consistency (.81 < Cronbach α <. 89). A further analysis conducted on 175 students (89% F) shows good convergent and divergent validity in relation to the Italian Scale of Community Sense (Prezza et al, 1999) and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988), a similar but distinct construct from the SC. The scale is a useful tool for planning, monitoring and evaluating university face-to-face courses.