Timely Teaching Tips: Building Student Community – Weeks 5 + 6 Spring 2023

Cultivate community between your students with these strategies!

Students can be one another’s best source of encouragement and academic support. That said, students may not always know the best ways to approach group learning or study strategies. With a little encouragement and guidance, you can help your students build meaningful social and academic relationships. 

Helping Students Create Study Groups

Wondering how to help students create study groups? The Academic Success Center’s Conducting Study Groups page provides suggestions for setting up and facilitating group study. You can offer support by creating a Canvas discussion board conversation where students can connect with other students in your class who are interested in joining a study group.

Using Annotations to Build Student Interaction

Seeking new methods to foster student interaction around course content in an inclusive manner? Read Social Annotation as a Learning Tool, a concise guide to the instructional purposes and benefits of collective annotation, leading annotation tools, and effective social annotation practices you can apply in your teaching.

Resources for Students Approaching Group Projects

Are your students starting a team project in the last half of the term? Share the Academic Success Center’s Teamwork Makes the Dream Work Packet and provide class time for students to plan a positive, collaborative approach. The packet guides conversations on communication strategies, shared understanding of the project, and backward planning from milestones and due dates.

Campus Study Spaces Resource

Share the Academic Success Center’s Places and Spaces for Studying Success with your students. They can evaluate their study spaces, consider elements of a productive space, identify physical strategies to support learning and see a list of Corvallis campus study spaces.

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