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1. Introduction
During the COVID-19 pandemic, universities around the world found themselves in the unprecedented situation of having to implement social distancing. In Canada, specifically, most universities had to abruptly transition from a largely in-person learning environment to one that was entirely contactless (Veletsianos and Houlden, 2020). As it became apparent that social distancing measures would continue for months and years, university administrators took steps to prepare for an extended period of remote education (Myrick et al., 2020). Though many stakeholders faced adverse effects, the transition to socially distant teaching was particularly impactful on students, and it became apparent that the loss of the university social experience harmed their mental health (Copeland et al., 2021). In a socially distanced remote learning environment, students were unable to meet new people, socialize and form friendships with their peers as they normally would in a physical education setting.
How can universities encourage students to have positive social experiences in such a remote education environment? One possible solution is to develop an institutional social network, which can encourage remote social interactions and friendships. Though there is now emerging evidence that emergency online teaching environments caused excessive social media use (Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2021), there is also past evidence to suggest that social network participation can have a positive impact on people suffering from anxiety (Indian and Grieve, 2014), and may even contribute to the well-being of university students (Manago et al., 2012). Though social networks cannot replace the traditional university experience, administrators may wish to consider their potential for facilitating meaningful social interactions among students when they have a remote offering. By digitizing an institution's existing physical social network with a social networking application, stakeholders might create a space for meaningful social interactions, which could improve students' experience with remote education.
This paper describes a study of an online community supported by an institutional mobile social network. The mobile social network was implemented by a large Canadian university to facilitate social interactions among students in a remote education environment starting in September 2020. Among the technologies employed was a customizable university mobile social networking application developed by READY Education (READY Education, 2021). This application was designed to develop and facilitate a social online community for students...