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- What Is It?
- Why Is It Offered?
- Who Leads Study Groups?
- Who Should Attend?
- What Happens During Study Group Sessions?
- Where Are We Located?
- What are the office hours?
- What Other Services Do We Offer?
- What Don’t We Do?
- When Study Groups Aren’t Enough
What Is It?
The Residence Study Group Program is offered as a FREE service to all students living in residence at the University of Ottawa. The goal of the program is to provide study groups in French and in English where students can meet once a week to discuss common first year courses. View list of courses offered here.
Why Is It Offered?
Groups are provided for ‘at risk’ courses. A course is defined as being “at risk” when 15% of the class or more have grades below ‘C’ (C = 60 – 64.9%).Study groups give you and your fellow residents an opportunity to go over many of the important concepts that you need to grasp for your courses, and to learn important study skills that will increase your chances of success, not only in first year, but throughout your entire university career.
Who Leads Study Groups?
Upper year undergraduate students lead these groups once a week in either language, as long as they have a grade of B+ or higher in the course that they lead. They have joined the program primarily to help out other students, and to have fun while doing it!
Who Should Attend?
We recommend that ALL first year students in residence attend as many groups as possible.For students who are experiencing difficulties, it is a great place to have problems clarified in an informal setting.
For students who feel more confident, it is a great place to test your knowledge of course material.
What Happens During Study Group Sessions?
The techniques used to conduct study groups vary as you move from group to group, but in general you will meet weekly to go through important concepts of the course. Some of the techniques include Q&A sessions, practice questions (from the textbook or by student request) and even games!Study group leaders have you answer all of the questions that come up, so it is a good way for you to see whether or not you are prepared for your exams.
Leaders encourage you to learn important study skills that are useful throughout your university career. View a list of study skills written by the study group leaders themselves..
We encourage you to send emails to your leader before each study group session if you want him/her to prepare special material. In addition to that, the last few minutes of every group session will be spent filling out feedback forms that give the leaders ways to improve their groups and what to plan for the next week’s activities.
Where Are We Located?
- Our office is located in the Resource Centre on the first floor of Thompson Residence.
Information: (613) 562-5800 ext 3165 (caspar@uottawa.ca).
What are the office hours?
- Monday to Friday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
What Other Services Do We Offer?
- Contact information for other academic services on campus.
- Study skill pamphlets prepared by the Student Academic Success Service (SASS).
- Postings for study skill related workshops organized by the SASS.
- Limited number of reference textbooks.
- HANDOUTS from study groups. They are saved on a computer, so that students can save a copy on a USB Drive or email it to themselves.
- Notices relating to study group meetings that need to be rescheduled.
What Don't We Do?
The Residence Study Group Program was put in place to provide an opportunity where you could discuss course material in a group setting, but those sessions have NOT been designed to replace any of the tutorial sessions offered by Teaching Assistants (TAs). Please remember that our leaders are neither tutors nor TAs but that they are there to facilitate the study groups only.