Online study groups – a balancing act between peer-learning and student support

Authors

Ralitsa Kantcheva and Kate Stuart
Bangor University

The COVID-19 pandemic was a time of great transition for many. New students faced an educational context very different from the university experience they had likely envisioned, while those further along in their studies had to adjust to sudden changes to their educational environment and its delivery. Students needed something to mediate the lost contact brought about by the pandemic and create a sense of connection to university life.

Within our Study Skills team, conversations about this issue led to the creation of an online study group. Its initial aim was to provide a workspace where students could receive peer support. Meetings began with casual discussion led by the facilitator, where the successes and struggles of the week could be shared, before transitioning to setting session goals. Through a series of alternating ‘study bursts’ and short check-ins, group members would work on their chosen tasks — reading chapters, planning assignments, and other responsibilities that could benefit from the peer motivation the group provided — while also being able to discuss plans and receive advice where needed. In this way, the group became not only a space for study, but also an online community which helped attendees forge the connections lost through the disruption of COVID-19.

The study group’s success has allowed it to continue beyond the pandemic lockdowns, recently entering its fourth year. Through this time, however, new challenges have arisen for students and higher education as a whole. With the cost-of-living crisis taking hold, students sleep less, prioritise work over studies more, and so miss out on key social and educational experiences that were once part of university life. Consequently, their relationship with higher education has also changed, with colleagues reporting an increasing sense that students wish to have learning delivered to them rather than actively engaging with it. As initiatives like the study group continue to evolve, the question of how to balance the desired peer-learning experience while also supporting students under pressure becomes increasingly important. 

Academic Socialisation

The study group began as an online space where students could receive motivation and peer support while university life was held at a distance and, although attendees could now feasibly find other outlets for this support in person, their feedback shows that this remains a valued trait. Motivation, in particular, consistently appears in student feedback as one of the primary aims for attending. As one student described:

The only time I consistently get work done is in study groups. At other times I struggle to concentrate. Studying with other people definitely motivates me to get things done.

A further, somewhat unintended success is the academic socialisation the group provides. In literature related to study groups, much of the focus rests on postgraduate groups. These groups introduce the norms of academia to PhD students, allowing them to share and develop research ideas in a safe space. The mix of students from across levels and subjects sets the Bangor study group apart from others. Still, academic socialisation is prominent within the group’s online community, as students from different stages of the academic journey share their experiences and provide insight into how higher education works. Through this, group members have helped one another transition from first-year assignments to undergraduate dissertations and, for some, on to postgraduate research. 

Moving forward

After four years, we have facilitated meetings that have gone brilliantly, others that were unproductive, and many in-between. The best meetings include moments where academic socialisation and learning are mainly peer-led. For instance, a first-year undergraduate student (2021-22) wanted to work on an upcoming oral presentation. They shared their anxieties about the format and, while the facilitator reassured them, the other attendees also volunteered their own advice about presentations. However, recently few students are willing to participate in advice and strategy sharing.

Another example of a decrease in peer-learning is the request for a post-meeting study group summary. Reflecting on some attendees’ comments that ‘the meetings are the only time they get work done’, we recognised that additional post-meeting support might be beneficial. With this in mind, this year we started recording what each student worked on, challenges they faced, and peer advice and strategies for resolving challenges shared during each meeting. We intended the post-meeting summaries to be developed by the students and to act as motivational ‘jumping off points’ to continue their work between meetings. However, the students are relying on the facilitator to create these summaries, with some using the summaries as a replacement for attending meetings and participating in peer-learning.

As student life once again experiences a major transition, naturally student support faces pressures to adapt. These pressures pose two important questions for student support:

1. How can we encourage learning environments which facilitate academic socialisation?
2. How do we encourage students to actively participate in their learning when they face so many external pressures?

To find suitable answers, we need to re-evaluate the current balance between supporting student learning processes and changing student expectations of learning in higher education.