StudyDuo
An Open University study group usually starts in a module's own spaces: the tutor group forum, the module forum and the online tutorials. Everyone there works to the same TMA cut-off dates. From there, students set up a chat of their own or join Open SU's clubs and online study rooms. Plan each meeting backwards from the next cut-off.
Tutorials and forums: where OU students meet first
At the OU, the module provides the meeting places. "Many OU modules have tutorials," says the OU Help Centre. "These are generally online but some modules offer face-to-face tutorials" (Working with others). They often fall in the evening or at the weekend. The same page notes that many modules have online forums "where students can work or chat together".
There are two kinds of forum. The tutor group forum is for your tutor's group, the students whose TMAs your tutor marks. The module forum is everyone on the module. Sharon Mallon, an academic who moderated OU module forums, writes that these "typically have hundreds of participants" (Journal of Social Media for Learning, 2025). The tutor group is the better place to recruit: it's smaller, and its members share your marker.
The OU runs peer support of its own on some modules too. The OU Law School offered peer mentoring by more experienced students to all 2,000 students on one course in October 2020, through forums. In October 2024 it moved the scheme to WhatsApp, for all 1,500 students starting its introductory law module, because "students were much more engaged" there (OU SCiLAB blog). Ask your tutor whether your module has anything like it.
Starting an Open University study group from your module
Post in the tutor group forum in the first fortnight of the module, before the first cut-off. Keep it specific:
- The module code and your tutor group, so people know you share a marker and the same dates.
- One fixed slot a week, in UK time: "Tuesdays, 8 to 9 p.m., until TMA 02".
- What the hour is for: working through the week's study material side by side, or quizzing each other on it.
- Where you'll meet, and that joining means sharing a username, not a phone number.
Three or four replies are enough to start. If your tutor group is quiet, try the module forum, then OU Students Connect, Open SU's chat platform for OU students. You log in with your OU account, and your profile can show your current module and the town you study from, which puts you on a map of other students.
What the OU lets a study group share
Most module chats are set up by students, outside the OU's systems, and the OU's Social Media Policy (version 2.0) covers them. Such groups "can be useful for discussing the general principles of your module", it says. What they can't be used for is collusion. The policy's lines, section by section:
| Topic | What the policy says |
|---|---|
| TMA questions | Groups "must not be used to collude with others by discussing or sharing answers to specific TMA questions" (6.3) |
| Answers and feedback | Never shared on social media "under any circumstances" (3.6) |
| Tutorial recordings | Recordings, or extracts of them, aren't shared on social media (3.5) |
| Module materials | Not shared without permission, assessment questions included; credit the source when you may (3.4) |
| Phone numbers | Joining a WhatsApp group "entails sharing your mobile phone number" (6.1) |
| Who moderates | Not the OU: the group's own admins set its rules, within OU policy (6.2) |
Mallon's interviews with 14 OU students show why the lines matter. The WhatsApp groups were motivating, "particularly around assessment time", but some students also saw "occasional sharing of copyrighted learning material, or essay plans". Each year she deleted forum posts in which students shared their phone numbers to get the link to a module's group. So write the group's rules into its first message, and keep TMA work out of the chat altogether.
Plan around the cut-off, not the calendar
Every TMA has a cut-off date. Submit "before the 12:00 hrs (midday UK local time)" on that day, with a 12-hour grace period until 23:59 (TMA and iCMA Policy summary, July 2025). Extensions exist, but for the final TMA before an exam, EMA or emTMA they're granted only in exceptional cases. Interactive computer-marked assignments (iCMAs) can't be submitted late at all. Tutors aim to return a marked TMA within ten working days.
So give your Open University study group a calendar built on those dates, not on the module week:
| When | What the group does |
|---|---|
| 3 weeks before a cut-off | Each member names the study material still unread; you agree an order |
| 2 weeks before | Side-by-side sessions on the material; questions about principles only |
| 1 week before | Each writes their own TMA alone; the group meets only to keep the hour |
| The day before | Everyone confirms they've submitted, with a day to spare before the noon cut-off |
| When marks come back | Each says one thing they'll do differently; no marks or feedback posted |
Book the weekly hour as a repeating event in your calendar for the whole module. At 60 credits a year, the OU plans for 16 to 18 study hours a week (Psychology and Counselling prospectus, 2026/27). One group hour is a small part of that. It's also the hour most likely to happen, because someone expects you.
Do student-run groups help at a distance?
The closest evidence comes from Spain's national distance university, UNED. Students in its Faculty of Education had set up their own Facebook study groups, and the pedagogy degree's group had about 5,000 members (Vázquez-Cano and Díez-Arcón, IRRODL, 2021). Over the previous five years, posting in the official optional forums of five courses had fallen by an average of 60%. The researchers compared 418 group members with 217 students who used only the university's platform:
| Students | Visits | Interactions |
|---|---|---|
| In a Facebook study group (418) | ||
| Official platform only (217) |
Source: Vázquez-Cano & Díez-Arcón, 2021 (UNED, 635 students)
Group members also finished with higher course results, a mean of 82.1 against 78.8. The members chose to join, so they may simply have been the more engaged students to begin with. Still, the pattern matches what the OU Law School saw: students talk more where other students already are. A group of OU students only has to make that talk about the module, at an hour its members keep.
Open SU's clubs, drop-ins and study rooms
Every registered OU student is automatically a member of Open SU, the students' association, which has over 20 student-led societies and more informal clubs (OU). On 15 November 2026, its Community Hub listed a Welsh Club Virtual Study Room on Microsoft Teams for 16, 23 and 30 November. It also listed community drop-ins every Thursday and a Welcome Week at the end of January and September. If some of your group live nearby, the hub explains how to host a local meet-up.
Studying side by side online
Two in three OU students, 67% in 2024-25, work full or part-time while they study (OU), so a group's members rarely share a free afternoon. On StudyDuo, Focus Room never closes and nobody's mic is on: each person types a task under their name, with the camera on their face, on their desk or off. Study Hour is one fixed hour a day that everyone begins together, and each member sees it in their own time zone. To talk a unit through, use a 1:1 session, the format with sound; it's open only to people whose photo is verified. Find Partners has no OU interest, but Distance learning brings up others who study the same way.
An Open University study group can use all three. More set-ups are on the online study group page; for turning a forum name into a study friend, see how to make friends in online classes. If you also hold a full-time job, our plan for studying around one covers the weekly hours.
FAQ
When do most OU modules start?
Many start in October or February. The psychology degree, for example, lists October 2026 and February 2027 starts, with registration for February closing on 7 January 2027.
Can I join a group from a different tutor group on the same module?
Yes. You share the module's materials and its cut-off dates; only your tutor differs. The policy on TMA questions applies whoever is in the group.
Is studying full time at the OU possible?
Yes, at 120 credits a year, which the prospectus puts at 32 to 36 study hours a week. The OU still counts every student as part-time.
