Is It the Same, Socially? Fully Online Learning and Its Impacts on Social Identification, Academic Performance and Confidence

Previous research demonstrates links between student social identification, perceived learning norms, learning approaches and academic outcomes and indicates the value of bolstering student social identification in higher education settings. The current study aimed to examine whether the models identified in this previous research replicated in a fully online environment. This is critical knowledge in the context of the industry-wide debate on the gains and losses of online university. Self-report survey data (N = 112), e-learning analytics and grades were used to examine student social identification, perceptions, behaviours, and outcomes over a 4-month period of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results were unexpected: previous models failed to replicate in our data. Exploratory analysis identified three ways forward: examination of student learning activity outside of institutionally provided online contexts, revisiting the use of SPQ as a measure of learning approach, and examining student social interactions and identification in a social media-rich online environment.