Wednesday, February 23, 2000
Web sites offer college-class notes free
Will students still show up?
BY JEFF CARLTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Not far removed from his undergraduate days, University of Cincinnati doctoral student and psychology teacher John Simon recalled the low-tech days of playing hooky on college campuses.
“Borrowing” the notes of friends in the same class was the way to make up for missing a lecture or two, he said.
At schools across the country, that's no longer necessary.
New Internet sites such as study24-7.com and versity.com pay students to go to class, take notes and post them online.
Mr. Simon's Psychology 103 is one of a handful of courses at UC in which students are being paid to post their notes online. Study24-7.com also made inroads at Xavier University.
Versity.com recently abandoned its attempt to start up at Northern Kentucky University after a month.
The sites bill themselves as study aides and say their notes should be used to supplement course material, but some professors fear the sites encourage students to skip class.
Both sites began hiring student note-takers in the Tristate in January, so their impact has been limited. So far, notes from just a few classes at each school are posted on either site.
But study24-7.com expects its impact to increase as more students find out about the site. The site, launched in January 1999, already has notes from 270 schools across the country.
Versity.com launched in 1997 and has posted notes from more than 150 schools.
Mr. Simon said attendance has not dropped this academic quarter and is comparable to the previous times he has taught the course.
Jacqueline Elk, a freshman from Pickerington, Ohio, said she has missed class twice and used the online notes to catch up. When she does go to class, she no longer takes notes.
Some professors already post lecture notes online. Spokesmen for the Web sites have been trying to convince other professors they are not out to undermine them. “Whenever there is change in society, there will always be opposition,” said Brian Maser, co-founder of study24-7.com.
Mr. Simon pointed out that students have always found ways to get notes. Fraternities often keep extensive files on notes from different classes.
“They're just easier for everyone to access now that they're online,” Mr. Simon said.
Barb Rininger, a fourth-year photojournalism major at UC, came across Versity.com while surfing. She filled out an online application, was contacted by a representative “to make sure I had a few brain cells,” and landed a part-time job.
Like all students hired by the two sites, Ms. Rininger takes notes for a class in which she has already enrolled — in her case, ancient history. Versity.com pays her $7.50 per hour.
Study24-7.com gives students a cut of the advertising. It tracks how many people visit a site with class notes. The more hits, the more money the note-taker makes.
Last year, study24-7.com sent its top student note taker on a trip to Hawaii.
Both sites are free to use.
Professors, however, are not defenseless if they think students are skipping class. Professors have plenty of ways to fight back, from providing extra credits to students who attend to giving pop quizzes.
“For some topics, it might be easy enough to just read through someone's notes online,” Mr. Simon said. “But as you get into more sophisticated material, nothing could give as good an explanation as coming to class and hearing it.”
But students who favor the sites aren't so sure.
“The online notes are pretty good,” Ms. Elk said. “You could definitely get away without going to class.”
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