When you think back to the beginning of your education, what do you remember? More than likely, you began your learning journey in a classroom surrounded by your classmates. Putting this into context, we have been learning in a social setting by collaborating with our classmates in some way or form since we first started to learn.
Technology has changed our relationship with learning by enabling us to access a vast amount of information at our fingertips plus easily connect with people online through different types of platforms. However, when it comes to studying for exams, most students approach the process of preparing to memorise information without the support of their most useful study resource – their friends and classmates!
Below we highlight the benefits of studying with your classmates and steps to help you start the process:
Benefits of Social Study & Collaboration
1. Save time and effort: One of the best things about taking part in collaborative learning by sharing study notes with a friend is that it can save you a massive amount of time, effort and ultimately stress when preparing for your exams. Here’s how you do it; pick a reliable classmate (or two) to share study notes with, divide up topics for your particular subject, create study resources for your chosen topics and share your friend. Remember, don’t get lazy – you can’t expect your study buddy to do all the work! Do your part and you can both reap the rewards.
2. Gain new perspectives & insights: The real value of learning from study notes created by someone else is that you can gain an entirely new perspective from another person’s view of a concept. This mix of views will give you an edge when it comes to your exams as you will be able to answer questions in a more nuanced way demonstrating your full understanding. Your study buddies will give you new ideas and facts which you never thought of and you will be able to do the same for them. Everyone is a winner!
3. It keeps you motivated!: You can’t let your friends down right? Knowing that you need to create study notes such as Mind Maps or Flashcards for your friends will banish any inclination to procrastinate and be lazy! If you’re using ExamTime to study and share your notes online, you will be able to see when your friends have made progress so you can’t slip. This should light a fire in the part of your brain that motivates you to study. Also, our Groups tool allows you to discuss ideas with your classmates so you can ask questions as you go along.
Sharing Study Resources
Sharing resources is at the heart of collaboration. We’ve made it easier for your to share your study resources so you can easily collaborate with your classmates to benefit from social studying.
ExamTime provides many options to share your study aids, depending on the learning scenario. If you want to share an individual study aid, clicking the “Share” option will allow you to share it with friend on ExamTime, by embedding the HTML code in your blog or website, sharing the URL link or simply by sharing it via social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or LinkedIn).
How to Share Using Groups
If you want to gain ideas and thoughts from a select group of people, you can use the ExamTime Groups tool to connect, communicate and share your notes privately.
Follow these 3 easy steps to sharing using Groups:
1. Invite a Friend
Invite your classmates to join ExamTime by visiting the “Friends” tab and entering their email or username. If they are not already a member of ExamTime, they will firstly receive an email inviting them to join our learning community.
2. Create a Group
Select the option to create a new Group in the “Groups” tab. Once your Group is created, you can easily click to add your ExamTime friends or invite new users to join your study group.
3. Share Study Resources
Click the “Resources” icon within your new Group and select which study aids you want to share with members. You can also visit an individual resource and share with a Group by selecting “Share on ExamTime”.
Start creating and sharing your study notes today with ExamTime! Get started here, it’s free!
About the GoConqr Blog
Our blog is part of GoConqr, a Free Learning Platform for Creating, Sharing & Discovering Learning Resources that help students and teachers achieve their learning objectives. Click here to start creating Mind Maps, Flashcards, Notes, Quizzes, Slides Flowcharts & Courses now!
