Universities’ Online Networking Operations: Expectations and Perceptions

This research explores the effectiveness of one UK university’s online networking operations from the student perspective. Existing research on online learning has largely overlooked students’ social development. However, developing a desired level of social connections is considered critical for boosting their emotional well-being. Adopting case study, this research used semi-structured interviews to collect data. The findings suggest that this group of year one students did not meet as many new people as they wished, and were also unable to turn acquaintances into close friends (breadth and depth), even though they were looking forward to making new friends. It appears that a lack of face-to-face, and also online networking opportunities seems to be the main causes. This study ends with recommendations for UK universities, and potentially higher education institutions in other countries using remote teaching as the main teaching approach.