Crossing the distance: University student newcomer socialization in online semesters—a case study

During the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency online learning impeded the pursuit of in-person activities that usually foster successful socialization in higher education. To investigate the effects of online learning on socialization, we asked two exploratory research questions: (1) How and to what extent does the level of socialization change during the first online semester? and (2) To what extent does level of change predict course dropout and academic performance? In our case study, using a sample of new students at a large German university, we ran an autoregressive three-factorial model of socialization (role, relationships, organization) with three measurements taken during the new students’ first semester, which was the second semester in which emergency online learning took place. Our results show that the relationships component of socialization did not increase over the semester, while the role and organization components increased. Furthermore, our results support a negative effect of the organization component of socialization on course dropout and a positive effect of the relationship component of socialization on academic performance.