This study evaluated students' sense of community, satisfaction, achievement, and retention in 3 sections of the same online undergraduate psychology course. Use of asynchronous discussion threads and students' perceived interaction with fellow students and the instructor were all correlated with students' perceived sense of community (SOC). When student-student and student-instructor interactions were examined more specifically, the sum of student-student interaction variables was related to SOC, while the sum of student-instructor interaction variables was not. Additionally, although sense of community was related to student satisfaction within the course, it was not related to either course grade or retention in an online course of study. A review of student comments exemplified this and showed that while some students enjoyed, needed, or desired social interaction, some students did not desire sense of community in an online course environment. (Contains 7 tables.)