Classroom community in higher education benefits students’ learning because it can soothe students’ anxiety about isolation. However, only a small number of studies investigated the key factors behind the cohesion of a classroom community. It is a vital issue because previous studies have pointed out that cohesion is crucial for the survival of a community. Against this background, this study developed a research model that incorporates social presence and social capital, so as to identify the decisive factors behind the cohesion of a classroom community. Our research findings demonstrated that social presence plays a pivotal role in affecting the cohesion of a classroom community. The former not only directly influenced the latter, but also affected it indirectly via structural and relational social capital. This result implies that increasing the interaction among community members (e.g. engaging them in discussion rather than allowing them to ignore read messages) is the first priority if we are going to alleviate students’ anxiety about isolation with classroom community. As students’ interaction increases, their social ties and mutual trust will become stronger, and their cohesion will be strengthened as well.

高等教育中的课堂社区有益于学生的学习，因为它可以缓解学生对孤立的焦虑。但是，只有少数研究调查了教室社区凝聚力背后的关键因素。这是一个至关重要的问题，因为先前的研究已经指出，凝聚力对于社区的生存至关重要。在此背景下，本研究开发了一种将社会存在和社会资本相结合的研究模型，以便确定教室社区凝聚力背后的决定性因素。我们的研究结果表明，社交存在在影响课堂社区凝聚力方面起着关键作用。前者不仅直接影响了后者，而且还通过结构性和关系性社会资本间接影响了后者。这个结果表明，如果我们要减轻学生对与教室社区隔离的焦虑，那么增加社区成员之间的互动（例如，让他们参与讨论而不是让他们忽略阅读的信息）是第一要务。随着学生互动的增加，他们的社会联系和相互信任将增强，他们的凝聚力也将得到增强。