In September 2020, we were all involved in the undergraduate psychology programme at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada (P.W., P.V. and R.P. as final-year students pursuing an honours degree, E.C. as an instructor and A.R. as a graduate student). In any other year, the undergraduates would have spent much of the time in a laboratory working closely with researchers and graduate students on their first research projects. For those of us applying to graduate schools, the experience of writing an honours thesis would have helped to decide our career direction, as well as offering practical skills, opportunities to publish and letters of reference.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic meant we were confined to our homes. Each of us was forced into planning thesis projects that could be conducted remotely. We felt disconnected, and that we were missing out. Faced with a full lockdown and remote-only learning and research, we were concerned about how this crucial year would play out.

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