Studying in groups no longer happens in clusters in the Sciences Library or packed booths in the Blue Room.
Since many of the University’s academic operations are remote this semester, students have been trying to find new ways to connect with each other to study through computer screens and across time zones.
Emmajane Rhodenhiser ’22 spends two hours per week on Zoom discussing problem sets with students in two different study groups. One of these groups was a mandatory component for her class, NEUR 1030: “Neural Systems.” Rhodenhiser created the other study group herself, bringing together students in her physics class, PHYS 0050: “Foundations of Mechanics,” who she already knew from previous classes.
Rhodenhiser said the study groups have been useful since they provide a place for students to “bounce ideas off each other” when first approaching problems, as well as feel supported in the class.
When tackling problem sets, it can be “very hard and daunting at first, so just to have a friend in the class who you can study with can help with your morale,” Rhodenhiser said.
Janet Peters, assistant dean of the College for Curricular Support and assistant director of the Academic Tutoring Program for the Sheridan Center for Teaching & Learning, also said that studying in groups has many advantages.
Other people bring a new perspective to problems that students try to solve, she said, adding that it also teaches students how to work in groups and not just individually, which is a “key skill” for “life beyond Brown.”
Doing so is particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic because students are longing to connect with each other. “I don’t think students want to study alone anymore,” she said.
Student organizations have also taken the lead in helping their peers study together.
The chemistry Departmental Undergraduate Group created study groups for the three classes in the introduction to chemistry sequence being offered this fall — CHEM 0100: “Introductory Chemistry,” CHEM 0330: “Equilibrium, Rate, and Structure” and CHEM 0360: “Organic Chemistry.”
Students in these classes could sign up through a Google form. Students were placed in groups of four to six people according to their preferred time of study — accounting for daily routine preferences as well as time zone differences, according to Maisy Meyer ’22, the leader of the Chemistry DUG and a teaching assistant for Organic Chemistry.
The groups aimed to give students an informal and unsupervised channel where they could meet people outside of class and talk about class material, Meyer said.
Under normal circumstances, students tend to form study groups with people they know or think they will get along with, Meyer said. This new method creates “a greater diversity of perspectives,” since it brings together a mix of people from different class years and backgrounds to work through problems, which Meyer believes is key for learning.
Inspired by the chemistry DUG’s initiative, Deepak Gupta ’22, the chair of Academic Affairs at the Undergraduate Council of Students, spearheaded an initiative to create study groups for classes in other departments as well.
Gupta noted that the most popular classes requested were NEUR 0010: “The Brain: An Introduction to Neuroscience” and a series of applied mathematics courses.
Both Gupta and Meyer said that they were surprised with the number of students who registered. A quarter of all the students taking the chemistry classes that were forming study groups signed up, Meyer said, totalling roughly 300 students. 215 to 300 students signed up for the study groups organized by UCS, Gupta said.
Meyer believes that it's especially important to have people who are “on the struggle bus with you” for difficult classes to talk to about the challenges students are facing when trying to understand the material.
Independently of the groups created by the chemistry DUG, Meyer also created a study group and group chat for her class, BIOL 1270: “Advanced Chemistry.” She said that the group has been instrumental in trying to recreate some of the informal aspects that have been lost in the transition to hybrid learning, such as walking out of the lecture hall with peers and discussing difficult concepts or exams. Meyer added that she really appreciates having a 24/7 channel where she can now have those conversations.
Still, Mayer and Rhodenhiser added that even if studying in a group helps with a lot of the difficulties of challenging classes, much of the importance of group studying stemmed from the nature of in-person interactions.
Rhodenhiser believes that while study sessions over Zoom may be more helpful academically they leave out a lot of the enjoyable social aspects of studying with a group in person.
“Because it’s just on Zoom, it is very much just business, you’re there just to study with each other,” said Rhodenhiser. I do think I have become friends with people in my study group but it’s not as social at all, just because you don’t have to go together to the place or go to get a meal.”
Gupta, who has a group chat for one of his classes, added that building connections over text is extremely challenging, but students are still willing to make them.
“It’s definitely weird trying to build that connection through GroupMe, but I definitely feel like this semester people still want to meet other people … it’s just a way of trying out different methods and seeing which one sticks,” Gupta said.
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