You missed class, you didn't have time to work up notes for the reading assignment, whatever the reason --you need help. You could ask a classmate for help, but now there is another option for help with notes for class, GradeGuru.com.
So what is GradeGuru? According to the website, the idea of sharing notes with others grew out of McGraw-Hill Education's "belief in the power of collaborative intelligence."
McGraw-Hill sees it an opportunity to inspire students to achieve academic success.
The premise is that students can create and submit notes from their classes and submit those study resources for the use of other students taking the same or similar courses. Those resources are then peer evaluated and assigned points based on peer ratings. The points can be redeemed for a variety of rewards including PayPal credit. At this point, the GradeGuru community is still fairly small.
Under the auspices of McGraw-Hill Education, GradeGuru's founder, supporters and developers have launched an Internet based platform that encourages students to help one another with their coursework. Issues with sharing work in the world of academia have always been a gray area with both students and faculty and the new trends of online resources have only muddied those waters. Some of the issues at hand are the danger of plagiarism, encouraging students to ditch class, and basic academic integrity.
According to founder Emily Sawtell, plagiarism is an issue. GradeGuru has a strict policy on plagiarism and checks all submissions with Turnitin.com. They are also considering options in addition to the plagiarism detection service to help prevent plagiarism and promote awareness.
The website provides free advice to students to ensure that they understand plagiarism and that they know to adequately reference their work.
"On our page for notes upload we already have large, bold warnings about what constitutes copyright infringement and what will and will not be tolerated in terms of uploaded notes," Sawtell said. "I think a site such as GradeGuru is a good idea," said IU South Bend's professor Otis Grant, "Higher Education sets the pace for technology so it is only natural that we embrace technology. This type of website represents another phase in the progression of communication."
Professor Dale Mais likes the idea on principal. Citing the help it could be to students who had to miss class for legitimate reasons as a main attraction.
Some professors like Mais, might be also be concerned that having a resource like GradeGuru could lead students to use it as an easy excuse to not attend class. Grant doesn't believe that the site would be a decisive factor in missing classes.
"College is not high school. For those students who are not taking classes online, the classroom experience is a fundamental part of higher education, so if a student is enrolled in a course, it greatly benefits them to attend the classes. It also benefits their classmates," Grant said.
"The bottom line is we are trying to educate people who are going to be leaders and visionaries and who apply critical thinking to solve complex problems." In addition to missing out on the classroom experience, students may lose points from their grade depending on departmental rules for attendance.
In the end, students must choose for themselves if sites like GradeGuru.com are beneficial to their learning experience.
April Buck can be contacted at adbuck@iusb.edu
Be the first to comment on this article!