Forming a Study Group With Your Online Classmates

Enrollment in online classes is swelling across the country, whether students are working toward their degrees at a completely virtual university or simply using web pages to keep up with classroom assignments, view missed lectures and check their exam scores. The technology has the power to let professors reach out to scores of students they couldn't teach in the past, when college was out of reach for those who didn't have the time, money or transportation to study on campus. Despite its strengths, online coursework presents its own unique challenges, as users — both scholars and professors — need the appropriate computer hardware, web connections, home study areas and self-motivation to handle the work. Students who work primarily at a lone computer terminal can miss out on the social support they share with classmates sitting at a neighboring lecture hall seat or library study carrel. Here are some tips for planning study groups with your online classmates.

* Create a virtual study space. Students often gather to work on a formal group project, or just to trade notes, exchange questions and brainstorm new ideas. That can be difficult when classmates are connected only through broadband cables, but products like Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger could provide a solution. Easily downloaded to a laptop or mobile device, the application combines instant messaging with social networking, allowing classmates to share photos and videos while they chat. Users can type a real-time conversation while they trade web links or collaborate with slide shows. Each dedicated group discussion session even has a virtual drawing board where members can write or sketch ideas with mice and keyboards instead of chalk and erasers. While video conferencing is not as intimate as gathering in a coffee shop, hosting a study group on Windows Live Messenger does have its own advantages. The system automatically archives the group’s conversation, saving their work, notes and graphics for later reference. That creates another bonus, since tardy class partners can log on later, study the stored discussion threads and post their own contributions asynchronously.
* Start your own Facebook page. Social media sites like Facebook are ubiquitous on campus, making them the perfect place to carve out your own little corner of cyberspace for studying. Students often create a new Facebook page dedicated to their own study groups for classes in any topic, from chemistry to English. All they need is one student to act as administrator of the group, taking care of details, such as making the group public or private.
* Keep your head in the clouds. The advent of cloud computing means that users can store their files on distant servers and access them from any location with a computer connection, instead of being bound to laptops, disks and thumb drives. Using free applications like Google Documents, students can share text documents from essays to outlines, and from Renaissance poetry to algebra equations. The application also includes spreadsheets, drawings, PDF files, images and videos, covering nearly every computer tool a student could need. All a group needs to get started is for one individual to take the lead and post the original document, then save it as a public file and give their classmates editing rights. Enrollment in online education is growing fast, and new technology tools are sprouting up every day to make it easier. Students should ask their friends and professors about new learning platforms and websites.

Search for study group software online and feel free to try out new online learning networks like McGraw-Hill's GradeGuru or Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces and SkyDrive as well as knowledge-sharing sites like Notelog.com or Cramster.com.