Community colleges, or 2-year associate-degree granting institutions, tend to enroll large numbers of students deemed misprepared for college-level coursework. Such students may also not be as likely to seek help, a self-regulated activity that is challenging and fraught with social stigma. A key component of active learning and the help-seeking process is social interaction with both peers and instructors throughout the learning process. We conducted structural equation modeling on data from the 2018 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (N = 17,045 students) to identify the degree to which they engaged in social interactions with instructors and peers and to explore which factors were most predictive of such pre-help-seeking interactions. Various psychological and sociodemographic factors were significantly associated with both instructor and peer interactions. We discuss implications for fostering environments that cultivate active learning interactions and help-seeking cultures.
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