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The Salience of Remote Friendship: Quasi-experimental Evidence When Instruction Goes Virtual

Author

Listed:
  • Arnab K. Basu
  • Nancy H. Chau
  • Yudi Wang

Abstract

What are remote friends for? Unanticipated campus closures during COVID19 created uneven student-level exposures to virtual learning challenges, and physically separated campus friends. Using university administrative data, and exogenous class-level differences in pre-pandemic on-campus housing assignments for parallel trend validation, this paper unpacks student-by-course variations in grade expectations using within-semester switches in grade option choice as cues. We find causal evidence that pandemic learning challenges encouraged Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grade-option uptake among freshmen, but having at least one (remote) friend in class nullified the effect. We explore evidence consistent with performance-improving mutual support despite physical distance between friends as underlying mechanism.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnab K. Basu & Nancy H. Chau & Yudi Wang, 2025. "The Salience of Remote Friendship: Quasi-experimental Evidence When Instruction Goes Virtual," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2568, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    • Handle: RePEc:crm:wpaper:2568
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    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I29 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Other

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