Online Study Tool Kit

You will most likely be assigned group work during your time at University. Given the situation with Covid-19 and due to social distancing measures onsite, the Library is unable to offer any group study space in the Library at the moment. We encourage students to use online platforms such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams to arrange any group study sessions/work. 

If planning a video call in the Library, please choose an appropriate floor/noise zone/room and remember that face coverings are required at all times. It is also recommended to bring headphones with you as due to Covid we are unable to loan these items. 

Things to consider when doing group work online:

1. Which communication channels are best for everyone?
2. How easily can you access these via mobile and other devices?
3. What online space is most accessible and reliable for your group?
4. Which tools are best suited to your subject area?
5. What will you have to create for the assignment?
6. How will you show how everyone contributed?
7. Where will you store your information so that it can be shared easily with everyone?

This guide helps you by listing some of the software and tools available at Roehampton that you can use to work collaboratively online. 

Group work offers a good opportunity to practice and demonstrate communication skills, for example: liaising with others to ensure the project is successful, dealing with problems, agreeing and delegating tasks/roles, sharing ideas and resources, providing support for each other, etc.

Group work also allows you to develop project management skills, e.g. agreeing and working to a deadline, reviewing progress and dealing with challenges/barriers that may impede successful completion of a task, learning from team members and sharing their expertise.

See our section on Group Dynamics on the Learning Skills Hub Moodle page to learn more about how to work effectively in groups to produce quality projects and assignments.  

Also see our interactive tutorial on Effective Presentation Skills for information about how to plan, create and deliver an effective presentation.  

When working out the project details, it is best to be able speak with your team members directly. There are three tools that you can use to communicate live with your group:

• Microsoft Teams - A shared workspace, letting you work from anywhere, chat with your team, and collaborate on files. 
• Zoom - Video and Audio conferencing and chat. You can download the free version and meet with your group for an hour at a time. 
• Blackboard Collaborate - Teaching staff can create a virtual classroom and online meeting space to share presentation materials, desktop applications and web resources such as multimedia. These can be displayed directly within the web conference room and functions such as synchronous audio, video, and chat enable participants to communicate and interact in real time.
  Webinar rooms include a collaborative whiteboard, polling tools and breakout rooms that allows you to interact with peers in groups. An interactive recording can be created for each session allowing students the opportunity to review material following the live online webinar.

In order to manage group projects, tasks and deadlines effectively, scheduling helps to keep on track of where you are and where you're going. 

• Microsoft Calendar: Linked to your Outlook mail.

You may need to share files with your team members to provide them with the resources they need to get the project done. You can use One Drive to access information from any location, including from home. That way everyone in the group can add, edit and update current information.

Microsoft OneNote - Microsoft OneNote is an online notebook that can be used to plan and track your project, collaborate on digital content and share content with your team. Get organised in notebooks you can divide into sections and pages. With easy navigation and search, you’ll always find your notes right where you left them.

One Drive - Share the files across devices with your team and can also have OneDrive personal cloud storage. Linked to your Outlook and Teams.

Moodle - is our virtual learning environment (VLE). Our Moodle guides will walk you through the need to know areas of the tool. If you can’t find what you need, please contact the Moodle helpdesk (see our contact details in the footer of the guidance pages). There are a range of teaching tools that are supported by the eLearning team which can be enabled by teachers on your modules to be used collaboratively with fellow students:

- Forums
Forums enable staff and students to communicate in a public module forum in their own time. Your lecturer will determine how Forums are used. This could be for general questions, an online seminar, group work, or getting to know your peers.  A forum can be limited to a group or open to all students enrolled on the module.
Remember – all messages you post to the Forums on a module are available to staff and students enrolled on that module. It is therefore important to behave appropriately online. Our Forums Student Guidance will give more details on the different forum types, how Forums can be used for information relating to modules, peer support or groups work activities and debates, and how to participate in Forums.

- Glossaries
Glossaries allow lecturers and students to create and maintain a list of module-specific dictionary definitions. Entries can be searched or browsed in many different formats and definitions can ‘pop up’ over instances of the word whenever the term appears in the module.  One useful Glossary type is the FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) which allows a question and answer to be entered instead of a word and a definition. Our Student Guidance on Using a Glossary will give more details on how this can be used in your modules.

- Using a Wiki
A wiki is a type of collaboratively authored website which can be used as a powerful tool for both reflective and collaborative learning activities. Wikis are very flexible and can be set up and edited in many ways. A Wiki may house lecture notes which an entire cohort can develop collaboratively and can act as a space in which a group can collect evidence prior to a presentation, or be used as a brainstorming facility for an individual project. Our Student Guidance on Using a Wiki will give more details on how this can be used.

- ePortfolio
Peer Review posts and pages on Individual Sites: Students can read posts and pages via a My Class widget on the class management site. They can also add comments which can be moderated by teachers.

• Collaborative class site: One class site is created that students and staff can post to and comment on each other’s posts. The settings can be configured so that all students’ posts must be reviewed by the lecturer before they are published.
• Group project sites: Sites can be shared with a group of students who can post and comment on each other’s work. For example, students can be assigned with the task of keeping a digital diary based on a shared task such as a presentation. This can increase the student’s ownership and responsibility of the task set as well as helping to reflect and improve on the final task.

All UoR students have access to Office 365 online as well as office on site on the open access devices, PC’s and Mac’s. You will need to login with your UoR details.

Microsoft Office 365
Get started with Office 365 for free. 
Provides you a suite of Microsoft packages, including Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher and Word.

Even better, it can be used across your all devices. You can install Office on up to 5 personal devices (which can include PCs, Macs, tablets and  smartphones).

Please note: the IT team does not support personal devices and therefore cannot assist with installation or any issues you may encounter with this. Please visit the Microsoft support pages if needed (see below).

Windows help & learning - Microsoft Support
Help and support content for Windows operating systems, including Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7. Learn about activation,  installation, updates, privacy, security, and how to install the software on your devices. 

For more information about group working or presentation skills please contact the Academic Achievement Team
Email: aateam@roehampton.ac.uk

For help with eLearning and academic tools (Moodle, ePortfolios, Blackboard Collaborate) please contact the eLearning Team:
Email: moodle@roehampton.ac.uk
Phone: 0208 392 5006

For general IT Support (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Microsoft Office 365) please contact ServiceDesk:
Online: ServiceDesk
Phone: 020 8392 6000
Email: servicedesk@roehampton.ac.uk

You can also access free/discounted software on the portal. 

And remember:

You can access all of your course information on Moodle.
You can login to your university emails on Outlook. 
You can find staff email addresses and phone numbers on the Staff Directory.
You can access Library resources on the Library Website.
You can access the Student Portal for more information. 
You can access your University drives on the IT Portal page, which includes instructions on how to access your files away from campus.
You can access specialist software, including SPSS and NVivo on the IT Resources page. This link includes all of the instructions on how to access your files away from campus. If the software is not listed, please contact your Programme Convenor or Module Convenor.