The Learning Technologies team at The National University of Ireland- Galway wrote about GradeGuru as a social network that is taking academic collaboration to the next level:

“Back in second year of my undergraduate Science degree (back in the Dark Ages), one of my friends instructed me to write my Physics notes in black pen so that they could be more easily photocopied. I complied, because that’s what you do for your friends, right?

GradeGuru seems to take this to a new level. This is a McGraw-Hill Education start-up which appears to combine social networking with note-taking (see GradeGuru – Facebook for Learning). Students submit their notes, which can then be searched and rated. There is a reward system in place, so that high ratings earn extra points, which can be traded in for rewards.”

LINK: http://learntechgalway.blogspot.com/2008/05/gradeguru-notes-sharing-by-students-for.html

In his blog, www.learninggames.wordpress.com, Daniel Livingstone described GradeGuru as the “Facebook for learning” and draws a parallel between the popular social network and the need for a academically focused platform.

“While Facebook started off as a social networking platform for students only, it never really had much of a focus on supporting learning – and has had relatively limited take up as a collaborative learning tool.

Courtesy of Shona Mullen of McGraw-Hill I had a peek at ‘GradeGuru‘ yesterday – a new social networking app focussed on note sharing and collaborative learning.

The idea is that students can submit their own notes of classes for other students taking the same/similar classes to use. Notes can be rated by readers, and points are awarded to the highest rating notes. Then (the incentive part here) points can be traded in for a fair variety of rewards… including paypal credit.”

LINK: http://learninggames.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/grade-guru-facebook-for-learning/