With the experimentation in numerous university courses of virtual educational environments, the recent pandemic reactivates the sociological debate around the democratization of university education. The inclusivness offered by online courses does not indicate by itself and automatically an advance in the process of democratization of university education. Rather, it seems to contribute to a redefinition of the problem. Placing itself in the wake of pragmatic-cognitive sociology and following an action-research method, this contribution analyzes an experimental teaching practice, the thematic on-line workshop, conducted, in the academic year 2020-2021, at an Italian telematic university to understand which social participation mechanisms are activated and thanks to which professional functions. The analysis highlights the "political function" that the teacher and the virtual learning environment share in validating democratic ways of thinking and acting within the workshop.