This is the **first sentence** of a news article from NHK News Web Easy: [大学
緊急事態宣言でオンラインと学校での授業に分かれる](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10013001861000/k10013001861000.html)

> 新しいコロナウイルスの問題で、去年はオンラインで授業をしていた大学 **も** 、今年の４月から、学生が大学に来て受ける授業を増やす予定でした。

If I replaced も with the other non-logical topic marker は, would it be like
saying "Universities that held classes online last year due to the new
coronavirus problem planned to increase classes that take students on campus"
- kind of like saying (due to the restrictive/comparative qualities of は) that
only universities that held classes online last year intended to increase
classes on campus this year.

Whereas the original sentence is saying something like (Because も is the
inclusivity topic marker) "Some universities (but not all) that held classes
online last year... Etc"

Am I on the right track with this one?
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question
particle-も
Function of も in this sentence
The most straightforward, and strict, interpretation would be:

> Universities that held classes online last year due to the new coronavirus
> problem **also** planned to increase classes that take students on campus (,
> along with other universities that planned to do the same).

Generally. the particle も is added at the end of the thing you want to
“include” in the same category as other things. In this case, it’s the whole
of 「新しいコロナウイルスの問題で、去年はオンラインで授業をしていた大学」.

Strictly speaking, though, this might not make much sense because universities
that _didn’t_ hold classes online due to the coronavirus last year wouldn’t
increase on-campus classes from this April. Even if some did, it should have
little to do with the coronavirus. At least, that’s not what this article
wants to talk about.

I think the inclusive quality of も should be understood a bit less strictly in
this context. It implies that universities, or even other institutions,
planned to implement some changes. Those that held classes online last year
were **also** among them; they planned to increase on-campus classes from this
April.

The sentence doesn’t say anything about “some” or “all” among universities
that held classes online.

As you say, は would have added an unwanted nuance of exclusivity (even though
it might have described the fact more accurately). If the article also talked
about universities that _didn’t_ hold classes online last year having planned
to so some _other_ concrete things, then は might have been good to explain
what those that _did_ planned to do in contrast.
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answer
This も is fundamentally "also", "too" or "as well", but Japanese も can be used
without explicitly mentioning "the similar thing" in previous sentences. In
such cases, you can think of it as 'like others', 'among others', 'like
similar examples we know', 'as usual', etc. This type of も is commonly used to
describe an event that happens naturally over time. Here も is used because
everyone knows that many other organizations had been planning to restart
social activities.

By extension, も can even add an exclamatory feeling (see: [Odd use of も has me
stumped](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/32886/5010)). Just by saying も,
it adds the feeling of "that's the way things are, and this time is no
exception".
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answer