Communication and connectedness in the classroom: Development of the connected classroom climate inventory

This article presents the rationale for and development of the Connected Classroom Climate Inventory (CCCI) designed to measure connectedness among students in the university classroom. The original inventory contained 20 items plus four validity items. Based on factor analysis and reliability analysis, two of the original 20 items were dropped from consideration. The resulting 18‐item CCCI scale was found to contain a single factor, to have an overall reliability of alpha = .94, and to show initial evidence of validity. The CCCI showed no scale score differences among class sections or based on teacher/student sex. These findings and implications for future communication research are discussed.