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Learning With Others

One of the fantastic things about university is that you get to learn with people. Every student has different perspectives, experiences, and strengths, so when you work together you can pool your resources and learn more. Taking courses online can feel more isolating, but creating a study group can help you build a greater sense of community. The process is less spontaneous than just chatting with the person who sits next to you in class, but the effort will pay off in terms of the benefits you and your classmates can get from working together.

Why Form a Study Group?

Besides allowing you to interact with your classmates and build connections, there are a lot of benefits to study groups:

Procrastination-buster: knowing you're meeting with your group can push you to complete readings and assignments that you may not want to do otherwise
New perspectives: everyone will have a slightly different take on the course material, and they will likely use slightly different learning strategies; seeing how other people approach the course can expand your own understanding
Reinforcement: talking about the course with other people can solidify what you know, and it can help you identify what you need to review
Motivation: you and your classmates can cheer each other on throughout the term

How To Start a Study Group

Sometimes you'll already know people in the class and can reach out to them. Other times, you may not know anyone, or you may not know how to contact them. Below are some things to consider and try.

1. Know thyself

Study groups need to be a good fit for everyone to work well, so a good starting point is to think about what a good fit would look like for you:

What do you want to get out of a study group?
- - For example, do you want to enhance your understanding? Get an A? Reduce stress?
What can you commit?
- - How much time do you have to spare? Effective study groups usually require some level of prep work, so how much are you willing to do?
What strengths and interests do you bring to the group, and what would you like others to contribute?
- - Do you excel at calculations and want to work with people who can help you tackle word problems? Do you want to complement your tendency to focus on details with group members who are good at identifying the big picture? Are you a pro at organizing events but tend to go off topic during discussions?

2. Assemble your team

Most groups have up to 5 members, which lets everyone participate and makes it easier to find a common time to work together.

If you know people in your class and have their contact information, they could be ideal people to start with.
If you don't know anyone or want to expand your group, you can send a message to your classmates through Moodle (instructions for how to do that are below).
Tell your potential groupmates a bit about your goals for the group, what you'd like to work on, and when/how you could meet up so that they can decide if it would be a good fit for them.
Once you have some members, figure out when and how you'll meet for the first time.

Moodle-Messaging.mp4

Sending Messages on Moodle

Video - CUE IT

Tips for Creating a Virtual Study Group

Video - ONDAS Student Center

Starting a Study Group

Video - The Learning Portal / Le Portail d’Apprentissage

How to Have an Effective Session

To make the most of everyone's study time, it can help for you and your groupmates to create some structure for your sessions.

Figure out the logistics

During your first meeting, or even beforehand, you and your group members will need to figure out some basics:

How often will you meet, and for how long?
When will you meet?
How will you meet?
What will you do? See options below for the format of sessions!

Establish group norms

To help your sessions go smoothly, decide on some norms or expectations for everyone in the group. Some things to consider include:

What should people do when they can't make a session? Should they contact the whole group? A single member? Is it ok if they just don't show up without telling anyone?
How should members communicate outside of the sessions? Will there be a shared email or chat thread? Is the thread for discussing anything at all, or is it reserved for study group-related business?
How will you make sure everyone has an equal chance to participate and is held equally accountable for contributing?
How will you treat each other (think about your negative group project experiences, and what the group would need to do to avoid that)?

Assign roles

Study groups help you divide work among multiple people, but it helps if every member isn't trying to do the same thing. Assigning roles can help you all work together productively.

You can set roles based on people's strengths or have everyone take on a different role each time you meet. Roles will depend in part on your group's makeup and goals, but at the very least you will need to have a leader to open and close the session.

Set an agenda

It may seem a bit formal for a group of classmates studying together, but having an agenda can help you stay on track. It doesn't have to be detailed, but for every session make sure each member knows:

When the session is happening, how long it will be, and how you will be meeting
When you will be having breaks
The session's goal (e.g., discuss last week's readings, prepare for the midterm)
Any activities planned (see below for some examples)
What everyone needs to do to prepare (e.g., finish the readings, create three practice questions)
If you are rotating roles in the group, who is doing each role

Now that you have the underpinnings of a successful study group, check out the next page for suggested activities!

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