The Relationship between Teaming Effectiveness and Online Students’ Sense of Connectedness in a First-Year Engineering Program

The relationship between team effectiveness and student online connectedness was investigated in a first- year engineering course developed around teaming projects. While team effectiveness has typically been incorporated in learning environments to obtain specific content-related learning objectives or career preparedness outcomes, our goal was to determine if the teaming could also contribute to students’ sense of community and connectedness during virtual courses offered during the pandemic. Our exploratory study determined that several of the teaming effectiveness factors significantly predicted factors from the Online Student Connectedness Survey. We discuss the possibility of intentionally utilizing good teaming practices to enhance students’ sense of community and connectedness to course or programs of study.