Buenas: Giving Everyone a Seat at the Study Group Table

Study groups are crucial in education to foster collaboration and motivation. Remote students, at greater risk of isolation, often miss this peer-driven environment. This paper presents Buenas, an Extended Reality (XR) system enabling remote students to participate in on-campus study groups seamlessly. Local students interact with projected representations of remote peers seated at a conference table, while remote students use XR headsets to integrate the group into their physical surroundings. A user study comparing Buenas to conventional videoconferencing showed significant improvements in engagement, presence, connectedness, and rapport through both objective and subjective measures.