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| 5/6/2009 9:59:00 AM Email this article • Print this article | |
Cornell students using GradeGuru.com to their advantage
Taryn Thompson
Reporter
Cornell University students are among the nation's top five percent of college kids participating in an up-and-coming new study tool.
GradeGuru, a McGraw-Hill Higher Education startup that allows students to upload study materials to receive peer feedback, recognition and rewards, is a new Web 2.0 venture focused on digital note-sharing. With more than 100 new registrations by Cornell students in the last 90 days, the university is fifth on the list of top universities - ahead of 321 other schools including Boston University and Yale University - from which college students are exchanging notes and study materials and get cash and gift cards in return.
McGraw-Hill officially launched GradeGuru on April 14 with a vision to develop a platform where students can benefit by learning from the study methods of others. Students receive payment for their notes based on the quality and popularity of the uploaded material, as determined by peer review, and these notes can the be downloaded for free by those seeking guidance and alternative points of view on their course work.
Jessica Lo, the campus brand manager for GradeGuru, works at Cornell trying to promote the site, raising awareness about its existence, and presenting it as a reliable resource.
"Your peers can go online, take a look at your notes, and give you a one- to five- star rating, depending on the quality and length of your notes, and how useful other students find your material," Lo said. "It gives the contributor an idea of how good their notes are, and if other students think your notes are helpful, it feels good on your part to help."
Lo, an operations research and engineering major, added that there is a culture of reciprocity at Cornell.
"We have top students here, so you might think that it may be cut throat but I think students are very willing to help one another succeed," she said.
Emily Sawtell, GradeGuru founder and Director of New Business Ventures at McGraw-Hill Education, said that GradeGuru grew out of some ethnographic research she did into how students study, how the media has an influence on the way students learn, and how college students approach their studies using certain technologies.
"It became obvious that students are communicating online but are still very reliant on each other," she said. Since the site's beta was established in the fall of 2008, Sawtell said the site had been growing rapidly, bringing peer-to-peer networking to a higher level.
Sawtell said substantial research documents the importance and impact of peer review, and how collaboration can improve student engagement.
"The incentive is tied to the value potential," she said. "Students get rewarded for their notes, and the better the quality, the more points they can get. The notes are really only as useful as they are accurate and thorough.
The premise, Sawtell said, is that students who have great study methods can impart their knowledge on others and improve education behavior in general.
In the arena of academia, a similar dynamic plays out when professors do peer review before publishing work. Sawtell said McGraw-Hill has been receiving significant support from Cornellians.
"We are having students email and say they like peers seeing what they're doing and seeing their work, makes them think more carefully about how they structure their notes," she said. "Technology in an educational context has a lot of potential for leveraging those types of peer interactions to drive student engagement. Theory is that that should happen, so it's nice to see that play out."
As the semester draws to an end, Lo said, GradeGuru will be helpful to students in preparing for tests.
"It's a great way for them to make extra money based on work they're already doing," she said. "More people tent to put up material before an exam, and students are already sharing notes."
Sawtell mentioned the importance of the Internet in the generation of current soon-to-be graduates.
"These people are digital natives and have grown up very differently, so McGraw-Hill is doing a lot of work understanding study habits, work loads, and how technology fits into that, in a sort of cognitive learning sense," she said.
GradeGuru has also recently partnered with TurnItIn.com, the leading plagiarism prevention service used by academic institutions, to deliver on its promise of ethical collaboration, according to Yianni Garcia, the press relations officer at McGraw-Hill.
So far Cornell students who have uploaded notes have collectively earned over $1,200 from their notes. In addition to having paid over $20,000 to students from Cornell and other top schools across the country, GradeGuru is rewarding the top student contributor this semester with an academic scholarship of $1,500 in recognition of their hard work and contribution. So far several Cornell students are front-runner for the scholarship, although there is some stiff competition from Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, and many other top universities.
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Suicide has recently come to Ithaca in a very public, and at times controversial, way. This past academic year, after three years with no suicides, Cornell experienced what is known in the scientific community as a "suicide cluster." OK, so maybe you're like me and you thought this whole JetBlue flight attendant story was good for maybe one news cycle.  |
