Scope and method of study. This study used a descriptive research design to describe students' sense of community and instructors' philosophy of adult education in a distance-delivered agricultural education and communication master of science degree program. Study participants included 23 students and 8 faculty engaged in the program. Students' sense of community in the online learning environment was identified with the Classroom Community Survey (CCS) instrument. Instructors' philosophy of education was identified with the Philosophy of Adult Education Inventory (PAEI). Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data. Archival data, consisting of course syllabi were analyzed and themes identified.

Findings and conclusions. The distance-delivered degree program was implemented to respond to the educational needs of adults serving as County Cooperative Extension Service faculty and middle and high school agriscience teachers. Students in the distance-delivered program were older their campus-based cohorts and had an extended break in their formal education, an average of nearly 15 years. Over 91% of the students scored above the midpoint of the range on the CCS, indicating that students somewhat agreed that a sense of community existed. The majority of the scores on both the Connectedness and Learning subscales were above the midpoint, indicating agreement that students felt connected and that a sense of learning existed in the program. No significant relationships were found between the CCS scores or subscale scores and any of the demographic variables identified. Most instructors had significant experience teaching graduate students, but limited experience teaching in the distance learning environment. The highest scored philosophical orientation for the majority (63%) of the instructors was the Progressive orientation, and the Humanistic orientation was the second highest (25%) scored orientation. Both orientations support a learner-centered approach to adult education, which is consistent with the field of agricultural education.