This article (16 page PDF) is your traditional social sciences survey of a class of psychology students (the most representative sample group anywhere!). The observation is that "there was a general sense that it was difficult to obtain a feeling of learning community when learning was delivered exclusively online and for some this was not a possibility at all." Specifically, "central to this sense of isolation was the inability to physically see, meet and share space with fellow students." Moreover, "a sense of mutuality and shared experience appeared crucial to the underpinning of learning communities." Let me propose an alternative interpretation: students are unable to feel a sense of privilege when they're not physically connected. They don't feel they get exclusive access to services (for example, "visibility and accessibility of academic teaching staff"). They feel this loss as a devaluing of their education, as it becomes something anyone could obtain, and not specific to their own particular cultural and ethical community identified by a range of cues, practices, and tokens developed by their out-of-classroom interactions with each other. Image: Myers & Ogino.
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