Coursework Software Tries to Make Studying Feel Like Facebook

Students live on Facebook. But there is controversy about the study tools that act like social networks which could be a student’s magnet and maybe even have an academic benefit.

In a recent article in The Chronical of Higher Education, Marc Parry and Jeffrey R. Young reviewed a new crop of Web services sprouting up across higher education. Colleges, entrepreneurs and publishers, all drawn by the buzz of social media, are competing to market software that makes sharing class notes or collaborating on calculus problems as simple as updating your Facebook status.

The big question facing all of these sites—a group that includes Mixable, from Purdue University, and GradeGuru, from McGraw-Hill—is whether students are really interested in social learning online. Another quandary: If students profit from selling their notes, are they infringing on a college's or a professor's copyright? And while the sites are not part of the seamy world of exam or term-paper vendors, what happens if some users post answers to tests?

"Studying is still largely an independent endeavor," says Jonathan D. Becker, an assistant professor of educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, who led the recent focus groups as a consultant to GradeGuru. "College students study in groups to some degree, but from what students say they don't find them terribly beneficial."

Note sharing online also raises the tricky legal question of whether students have the right to sell ideas presented in a professor's lecture. California State University officials recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to Note¬Utopia, a note-sharing site based in San Francisco, citing an unusual state law that bars the distribution of lecture information, including "handwritten or typewritten class notes," for a profit.

Despite concerns, more than a dozen sites are racing to sign up users for their social-studying services. Check out the four that are the most interesting:








I'm Ron Denaro and thanks for joining College Campus Chatter today!

Ron Denaro is the president of College Campus Trips, a tour company providing high school students with tours of college campuses, nationwide. For more information, call (954) 567-5751 or e-mail: ron@collegecampustrips.com