As this trend continues, universities risk losing the community of informal, social learning that they were designed to foster. And that would deprive their students of a fundamental and important mode of learning and growth. Rather than ignore this challenge, or chalk it up to the inevitability of the digital world, universities can and should create digital equivalents and environments to replicate—or even enhance—the authentic student interactions they are likely encounter on campuses. In the absence of such digital equivalents, students may find or create social spaces online anyway, with the potential to bring out poor behavior and becoming disconnected from the formal social constructs of academic life.
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-10-05-colleges-need-to-build-digital-quads-to-support-social-learning-for-online-students
