While blended learning is still the norm and major disruptions or significant changes can easily interrupt our learning plans, study groups will be more important than ever.

Working collaboratively in study groups provides a unique opportunity to reinforce and deepen in-class learning while also providing structure, support, and accountability.

Why would you want to begin a study group?

First and foremost, study groups provide a support system to get through difficult classes by allowing you to vent about your course and the lecturer.

• Members encourage and support one another when the going gets tough.
• Increases motivation and engagement with your modules, especially as you near the end of term.
• Gives you good practice trying out your ideas before seminar.

Logistically speaking, study groups allow you to efficiently cover more material by dividing work among group members.

• Learners give and receive feedback in an ungraded environment where the pressure is not as great.
• Study groups provide opportunities to learn from others’ points of view and to recognize that there can be more than one way to approach a problem.

You learn best when you are actively and interactively engaged in learning that allows you to creatively improve your knowledge and problem-solving skills.

• Study groups reinforces and deepen your conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills.
• You actively “build” knowledge, which leads to greater understanding than simply “receiving” knowledge through individual passive reading or note-taking.
• Encourages reflection on articulation of your knowledge making it more conscious, accessible, transferable, and long-lasting.
• By explaining concepts to others, you can learn what your strengths and weaknesses are with the material.
• You own your learning process!

Taking the lead on starting a study group helps build important leadership and organisation skills, which you could mention on a CV or during a job interview.

Logistics

How many members?

An ideal study group should have between three and five members who meet for between one and three hours.

How do you find members?

• Exchange numbers and start a seminar group or module WhatsApp, Slack or Discord group.
• Pass around a piece of paper and ask for people’s names, email addresses and phone numbers.
• Share your email address and ask people to get in touch with you.
• Make an announcement in class or on module chats/discussion boards on Moodle or Teams.
• You can email your lecturer or seminar leader and ask them to make the announcement for you during lecture or discussion. You should let them know how students can contact you after the announcement (email or phone number).
• Study groups can also be formed with friends that you know are taking the module or new friends that you make in class. The drawback to having a study group that is composed only of friends makes it difficult to hold people accountable for their contribution to the study group.
• N.B.: If you gather contact details, you are taking responsibility for emailing/messaging people with the details of the study group (time, place).

Where will you meet?

As a group, decide where you will be meeting (e.g. study rooms across campus, dining halls, campus cafes, or use Teams/zoom online.

How often will you meet?

• Set a time and date that the group will meet. You need to decide if it will be a weekly, biweekly, or one-time study group.
• The time you all decide on should work well for everyone in the study group if you will be sharing material.
• You might want to use a doodle poll to easily find a good time to meet, keeping in mind that you’ll need to think about people getting together physically but also possibly online.
• You’ll need to consider when you can all get online, work ‘out loud’ in your space, and feel alert enough to work on screen.

How long will you meet?

• Study sessions less than an hour are likely to be rushed, but if the study session is too long, productivity tends to drop, and people lose focus.
• Take breaks at scheduled intervals. Planning a 10-minute break halfway through your study session, for example, can help minimize interruptions caused by people getting up to get a beverage or to make a trip to the toilet.

What do you need?

You need to ask that all study group members bring their lecture notes, reading, books, and scratch paper. You might also want access to a computer and Internet in case you need to look up definitions of terms.

Internal Group Dynamics

Once you figure out the logistics you should decide how the study group will function. Will you study have a leader or a moderator? How about a note taker? The following are some roles that you can use in the study group. These are only suggestions. You can pick and choose which will work for your study group.

1. The organizer would take responsibility for scheduling the time, place, and future meetings.
2. The moderator would be responsible for keeping people on track. This person may receive emails for group members about confusing topics, terms, or concepts to create a schedule or outline of things that must be covered in the meeting.
3. The notetaker would be responsible for taking notes during discussions about terms, concepts, and answers to questions. However, all group members should also be responsible for taking their own notes. The function of the notetaker is providing an in-depth view of what was discussed during the study group.
4. The members of the study group are responsible for preparing questions, reviewing the material before the study group, and asking for clarification. The members must show commitment to the study group by reviewing the material even if they don’t understand the material.

Regardless of how you set up the group, make sure you stay focused! It can sometimes help to set a 30-minute timer, and if it goes off and people are off topic, it can be a reminder to get back to the point of the study group.

1. Distribute to the entire group contact information or create a group chat, etc.
2. Try to establish a regular schedule with clear start and end times—as soon after class sessions as possible usually mean you’re most productive
3. Consider multiple (say twice per week) sessions rather than one long session in which efficiency is lost (this is especially true if you’re doing your study group virtually)
4. Commit to reviewing, studying, etc. course materials in advance of meeting to maximize efficiency and make sure you don’t waste other people’s time.

The First Meeting

If this study group will meet more than once you must discuss several issues during your first meeting.

1. What is the purpose of the study group? Every study group needs a purpose. You must decide what type of study group you want. Go around the room asking each person what they would like the group to do or what they would like more help with. This concept of going around the room gives each person a chance to both contribute and to seek help. You might then collectively answer these questions:
   • Will this study group focus on learning the unclear material?
   • Will it review the material presented in class?
   • Will it review excessive readings? For example, some study groups are formed to share the reading material for one class. Students may divide the reading material and create a one- or two-page summary of the reading material.
   • Do you have a study guide or study questions from your lecturer to use as the basis for your study group?
   • Will you ask people to volunteer to work on topics or reading assignments to present to the group?
   • If you’re creating collaborative group study tools (e.g. summaries, outlines, mind maps, annotated notes, ‘crib sheets,’ lists of potential paper or test questions, etc.) what online platform will you use for this (google docs and dropbox are excellent)?
2. Accountability and Commitment are very important in a study group. The group members should discuss the consequences that group members will receive should they not fully contribute to the study group. Questions to address:
   • How will group members be held accountable for participation or taking care of their portion of the material?
   • What type of work quality is the group expecting from the group members?
   • How do you address poor quality work? This might require a system of accountability.
   • How does one demonstrate a commitment to the study group? Commitment is especially important for groups that focus on creating handouts or review sheets.
   • What does commitment look like? Sometimes students have a different definition of what commitment means. Come up with a definition about commitment will facilitate any disputes.
   • How many times can a person miss?
   • What will happen to individuals who miss the study sessions?
   • Who should be notified if you can’t attend the study group?
3. Review Class Notes, including big concepts/tools, clarifying confusions, filling in gaps at the beginning of your discussion about the coursework.
4. Canvas Views. Go around the room and ask each person what they would like to discuss or what they think about the ideas, reading, techniques or what they would like more help with. This provides some structure, and it gives each person a chance to both contribute and to seek help.
5. Wrap-up and Review. Do a quick “review” or “wrap-up” at the end of the study session to recap on what was covered. Plan this during the last ten or fifteen minutes of the review session. Anticipate that there may be some questions, or somebody may need some additional help on a specific problem or topic. You should also use the tail end of these time to set out plans for the next meeting: when, where, and what each person will be responsible for doing. You might encourage people to build a ‘mastery’ of a particular chunk of content or you might try to share things around evenly, so everyone gets to build their skills in all areas.

Problems and Solutions of Study Groups

If problems arise, clarify expectations, change them as necessary, and be willing to experiment. These typical problems also come with some solutions:

1. Lack of attendance: people are failing to attend the regular meeting (weekly, biweekly, or monthly).
   • You might what to address the problem directly. You can ask the person why they are not attending the study group. You can ask them if they will be able to contribute to the study group. If the individual cannot commit to the study group, it might be better if they drop the study group.
   • If scheduling is the issue you might want to reschedule your study group so more people can attend. This might mean that you would have to move to the evening or weekend. Should this occur could you make the study group more fun to make up for the late night or weekend meeting (i.e. bring food, go out as a group afterwards)?
   • Lastly, if you have addressed the problem and changes don’t happen, then you can find other people to study with.
2. No preparation: Members are not prepared for the study group.
   • Review before study group should be emphasized. When someone shows up without reviewing the material you should allow 15 minutes for review of lecture notes before the study group begins.
   • You might create projects that help everyone review their notes depending on the subject matter. For example, you might ask each member to create a five question ‘pub quiz round’ for a certain lecture or lectures that the group can take.
3. Concerns about the material: the members of the study group are confused about a term, concept, or idea.
   • First, you might want to go over the lecture and reading to find a solution.
   • Then you might want to attend the lecturer or seminar leader’s office hours.
   • You can also ask other classmates who aren’t part of the study group.
   • You can use other resources like the Internet.
4. Inconsistent information or knowledge: there are two or more approaches about a topic, term, or concept.
   • Talk about differences of interpretation.
   • Look at the material again in greater detail.
   • Go to the lecturer or seminar leader.
5. Waste of time: the group members do not believe the study group is getting anything done.
   • You must have a meeting as a study group and assess why the group is not accomplishing its goal. There might be issues around commitment, accountability, or tangents.
6. Lack of motivation: people are not motivated to attend the study group; people are not participating during study group session.
   • If the study group is too strict you might want to loosen up by making the structure fluid.
   • You might want to change locations. For example, one week you meet at the library another week at a café.
   • Organise your meeting around food – lunch or dinner meetings can often help motivate people!