Classified "A" by ANVUR in the fields 11/D1, 11/D2 Scientific in the field 14.
A strong expansion of digital practices has accompanied the pandemic emergence, also in education. This rapid change in an increasingly digital society implies to rethink the way education and training are designed in the various subject areas (European Commission, 2020), taking into account the opportunities of the new digital technologies and the changes they foster. Living and working in digital conditions contributes, for example, to changing relationships of trust (Blöbaum, 2021). Trust is an important element in educational practices (Cavalli, 2009) and in social action, since it mitigates fear of risks, controls uncertainty, opens towards the other (Giddens, 1990; Luhmann, 1989). Our contribution focuses on some aspects that in the Italian university context characterise the relationship between teachers and students in third digital spaces (Potter & McDougall, 2017), with the aim of highlighting significant elements to which to direct attention in the change underway and, in particular, in the construction of the relationship of trust. The data come from in-depth interviews carried out with 32 students and 15 university lecturers as part of a research project conducted by the Salesian University Institute of Venice in collaboration with the University of Padua between March 2021 and March 2022, with the aim of investigating how the links between lecturer and student within third spaces modify the teaching relationship and the teacher-student relationship in an increasingly participatory, horizontal and hybrid context. In addition to the interviews, 13 lecturers were involved in two focus groups to investigate what kind of relationships can be established on digital platforms and, in particular, how informal digital proximity between lecturers and students can influence relationships of trust in teaching communication.
