  The COVID-19 pandemic imposed profound changes on the way we think about
undergraduate physics education. Online courses became mainstream. Exam formats
were reimagined. Digital whiteboards replaced face-to-face discussions.
Laboratory classes were outfitted with home-delivered supply kits. And all of
us developed a more intimate knowledge of Greek letters and symbols (delta,
omicron, etc.) than we might have comfortably liked to admit. Having weathered
these transformations from the point of view of both an undergraduate student
(S.L.J.) and classroom instructors (A.H. and C.L.S.), we have found that among
the most challenging aspects of the in-person learning experience to replicate
in an online environment have been the relational ones. To highlight some of
the ways in which these issues can be mitigated, we report here on the
activities of the San Jose State University (SJSU) Physics and Astronomy
Student Reading Society (PhASRS), which was an online reading group at SJSU
founded by ourselves and others running from the summer of 2020 until the end
of the fall 2020 semester. Elements of the reading group's structure and
guiding principles are described, as well as student and faculty reflections on
what worked well and what did not. The manuscript underlines the power of
astronomy- and physics-themed journal clubs as vehicles for learning and more
generally emphasizes the importance of community-building initiatives in the
discipline. Our hope is that this summary of activities will inspire faculty
members and students at colleges and perhaps high schools to imagine new
possibilities for developing communities of people in science that might not
otherwise be able to exist.
