A Series from the UConn School of Business
Making Connections
To Support Your Academic Success

As School of Business students, you know the value of building your personal brand and network. Choosing to invest time into your college connections through study groups, class teams, and your faculty will benefit you long after your graduation. If anything, engaging is now more accessible then ever before using both in person and virtual tools. All you have to do is use them!

  • Connect With Your Classmates: enhance your academic success and understanding of material - as well as nourish your abilities to work effectively on a team.

  • Improve Connections In The Classroom: learn efficient and effective ways to work with classmates, which in turn can help improve your grades.

  • Learn To Use Office Hours: discover strategies that will help you make the most of Office Hours.
Connect With Your Classmates
Join A (Virtual) Study Group

Study groups outside of class can:

  • Provide more well-rounded insight and perspective
  • Deter procrastination since you are not working individually
  • Help you learn best practices when working on a team
  • Give you the opportunity to more comfortably ask questions or teach others the material (which is one of the most effective ways of learning!)
Improve Connections in the Classroom
Be A Team Player: A Road Map For Success from Dr. Lucy Gilson

UConn School of Business faculty member Dr. Lucy Gilson, whose research focuses on virtual teams, knows the road map to success for working on group projects or virtual teams this semester.

Learn how to use three actions - planning, communicating, and sharing - to help you find success in the virtual team learning environment.

These skills you practice now will no doubt make you more successful beyond your academic experience too. This practice may become one of your best assets in the future internship and jobs market.
Learn To Use Office Hours
Office Hours are dedicated time your faculty is available to meet with students individually outside of class to better help. A student's role is to attend these hours when possible with questions or goals for this time spent one on one.
Some examples of when to attend Office Hours:

  • You don't understand what is going on in class
  • You missed a class
  • You are unsure of how your grade was calculated
  • You achieved a poor grade on a test or homework
  • Inquiries about how to best study for the course
  • Questions about important dates/deadlines (including exam dates)
  • You have a desire to learn more about a certain topic or lesson
  • You have questions about potential research opportunities
  • Introducing yourself - This is by far the most important and underrated reason, try to do this before the first few weeks are over!
How Can I Request A Meeting?

Try this template:

Good Morning/Afternoon Professor _______,

I would like to organize some time to connect with you outside of class due to some questions I have about _____________.

Are you available to meet virtually on Friday, October 5 at 2PM? If not, I am free on the following days and times: ________________. Please let me know what would best for your schedule.

Thank you,
_______________
Learn More


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Questions? Do you have a suggestion for academic resources that will help students while engaging in learning?

Email laila.chaoui@uconn.edu.