Social connectedness and the use of social resources in the initial phases of undergraduate studies

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This project focusses on the relevance of social factors for academic success in the initial phases of undergraduate studies in science and technology. To develop a complete model for predicting academic success in order to deduce concrete measures for supporting students, the project takes emotional/motivational and knowledge-related effects of social connectedness into account. Study 1 investigates the relation of social factors and academic success of chemistry and civil engineering students based on how students use social resources for emotional/motivational and knowledge-related support. Besides social connectedness, further variables are considered that are related to socio-emotional/socio-motivational aspects, such as need to belong and to socio-cognitive aspects, such as knowledge about other students (group awareness). Study 2 explores the social connectedness of chemistry students by looking at specific relationships between students using social network analysis. This method enables the identification of interrelations between a student’s social network and individual variables, focusing on the co-evolution of the social network and emotional/motivational variables. Furthermore, this study tests relations between social connectedness and group awareness as knowledge about specific peers. Study 3 tests experimentally whether group awareness support implemented in an online learning platform fosters students’ use of social resources to gain knowledge. Specifically, we will observe whether chemistry students are supported in identifying peers who can help them to overcome academic struggles. We expect that this measure of support can compensate for any group awareness deficits that students might have in the first part of their undergraduate studies due to low social connectedness in the new social environment. All three studies consider gender differences. Thus, this project investigates relations and effects of significant social variables and academic success that enhance existing research insights in this field and complement the conceptual framework of the research unit ALSTER. Furthermore, it builds the foundations for practical measures to support students in overcoming the problems that may arise from a lack of social connectedness during the initial phases of their undergraduate studies and thus potentially leading to increased academic success.