ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
This article is part of the Research TopicReimagining Higher Education: Responding Proactively to 21st Century Global ShiftsView all 42 articles
"I don't learn like this": Social Capital and Human Capital during Emergency Remote Learning at an Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution
Provisionally accepted
- University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
As American universities expand online course offerings in pursuit of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging goals, important questions remain about how such shifts affect underrepresented students' educational experiences. This study examines how online learning environments shape Latinx undergraduates' sense of belonging, opportunities to build social capital, and ultimately, human capital accumulation. Drawing on interviews with 45 participants at an Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution during the COVID-19 pandemic, findings reveal that the rapid expansion of online learning without corresponding investments in pedagogy or infrastructure eroded students' peer networks, weakened student-faculty relationships, and isolated students academically. These missed social connections disrupted both engagement with course material and access to institutional knowledge, ultimately compromising human capital development. The study illustrates that while online learning may increase access, it often sacrifices the relational dimensions of higher education that are crucial for academic success. The study underscores the need for substantial investment in online infrastructure and pedagogy to ensure social capital opportunities in online classrooms, and calls for a reimagining of online pedagogy to center connection and inclusion, particularly for historically marginalized students in higher education.
Keywords: Academic engagement, Belonging, Cultural capital, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Human Capital, Online Learning, social capital
Received: 01 Oct 2025; Accepted: 08 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Saper. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kea Saper
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.