Livin' on a prayer: A quasi-experimental investigation into the efficacy of learning communities

Abstract

With the increasing adoption of learning communities by post-secondary institutions, it is imperative to document their effectiveness, as the existing research is not definitive. In this study, we found that learning communities have a positive impact on students' engagement and perceived gains using a quasi-experimental approach, confirming previous research; however, learning communities do not appear to drastically alter the student experience on average. Additionally, we found that the estimated effect of learning communities varies widely across institutions on a variety of measures. Consequently, it appears that while some learning communities are extremely impactful, others have a negligible impact on students.