Even if you are studying at one of the best schools online, online study can often mean that you lose the benefits of interacting with other students. But, in today’s world of web interaction, there is absolutely no need that it has to. Google plus is just one of a great deal of sites that allow multi person chat and even multi-person video chat.

Google + Circles

Google + actually works a lot like both twitter and Facebook (sort of a marriage between the two) with a lot of great extras added in. For starters you can add all of your classmates, or anyone you happen to find online who studies the same subject as you, to a circle. Then you can label that circle and they will always show up with the label that they are in your class. (Keeping track of friends made simple).

Google + Video Chat

Google video chat is another great tool you can use with your circles. For example, you can set up a chat room where you can interact with your circles on video. You can limit which circles can access the chat (no having your parents in your study group…) and you can limit what people can enter your chat (get rid of that annoying person who keeps hitting on you…). Best of all, video chat is one of the easiest and most fulfilling ways to interact with other people.

Find People

Another great tool for setting up your Google + study group is that it allows you to find people, and sometimes by what they do or study rather than by name. This is a great tool for adding people to your group. You can also set your chat group up as permission only. This means that you will have the ability to screen everyone who uses your video or chat group.

Time Chats

Guess what, you can invite people to show up for a study session at a certain time. This means not only will everyone show up at the right time also that no one will miss out because they forgot it was another day.  This can be used to set up regular ‘study group’ meetings or whatever else you want to do with it. Best of all, if you have the right apps installed, you can access your chat group right from your mobile!