“…In recent decades, several studies emphasize a significant association between students' social relationships and their academic performance at different ages ( Baldwin et al., 1997 ; Caprara et al., 2000 ; Bruun and Brewe, 2013 ; Gašević et al., 2013 ; Blansky et al., 2013 ; Ivaniushina and Alexandrov, 2018 ; Stadtfeld et al., 2019 ; Kassarnig et al., 2018 ; Berthelon et al., 2019 ; Pulgar et al., 2020 ; Candia et al., 2022a , Candia et al., 2022b ; Pulgar et al., 2022a , Pulgar et al., 2022b ; Candia et al., 2019 ; Smirnov and Thurner, 2017 ). For instance, academic performance correlates positively with social capital–the individuals’ network of connections and tacit cooperation ( Halpern, 2005 )–among college students in online degree programs ( Gašević et al., 2013 ), and with the flow of online and offline communication among undergraduates ( Kassarnig et al., 2018 ).…”