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Today, The Independent Collegian- The University of Toledo newspaper, published the article, Website Allows Students to Share Course Materials.

News Editor Randiah Green of The Independent Collegian interviewed our founder, Emily Sawtell as well as one of our UM (Ohio) ambassadors Allie Nikitas asking them a series of questions about GradeGuru.  The article discusses the development and benefits of GradeGuru for students across campuses.

The article also mentioned the newly released school specific pages and highlighted the perspectives of students at UT regarding online student note-sharing.

To see what UT students had to say check out the UT article: Website Allows Students to Share Course Materials

We’ve given GradeGuru a major facelift, bringing you a new homepage, University specific pages, an optimized note reader and more!!!

New Homepage and Video

The new GradeGuru homepage features an overview video, complete Facebook Connect integration to make it easier to login and share your notes, a school search engine widget, Top Gurus’ profiles and more.

University Specific Pages

Universities now have their own note-sharing community within GradeGuru. The University Page provides you with an accurate break down of all courses at your school and tells you how many notes are available for each subject. You can even see how many peers are members and connect with Top Gurus at your school. Just type in your school name in the Find Your School widget on the homepage to locate your school specific page. For example, click here to checkout Cornell’s University Specific page

What Do You Get For Sharing Notes?

• Feedback - All study materials are reviewed by our student members, giving contributors constructive feedback to improve their study methods.

• Rewards - Students who contribute are awarded GradeGuru points based on the quality and usefulness of their notes as measured by peer review. The more people use the notes, the greater the rewards. Points can be redeemed for cash, gift cards from one of our rewards partners, (including BestBuy, CampusFood, iTunes and Starbucks), or charitable donations, (e.g. plant a tree for every 100 points earned through our partnership with the American Forest Organization).

• Status (what is a Top Guru?) – Students who contribute generously to the community and receive positive peer reviews for their study materials are recognized with status badges on their site profiles. Members can reach Bronze, Silver or Gold Guru status in recognition of their leadership and respect in the community. Through our soon to be released Guru Privileges program, these top students will also benefit from access to internships and other career opportunities from our Corporate Guru Partners.

Jackie Hughes is a Junior Marketing major at Pennsylvania State University, a GradeGuru brand manager and a contributing editor for our blog. Click on her name to view her GradeGuru profile.

When I think back to my freshman year of college, I recall time and time again, my roommates and I frantically heading downtown before exams to purchase Nittany Notes. During finals week, the line for Nittany Notes was out the door, crammed with students all doing the same – spending more than $10 for each set of notes. After only a short time, a large portion of my bank account was grudgingly put towards Nittany Notes. My Senior year I found GradeGuru (sigh of relief).

GradeGuru allows students to view class notes for free. The rating system on GradeGuru allows me to see which notes are the most detailed and reliable, ensuring dependable notes. I just search the name of my class and the results for all contributions, including notes, exam study guides, and presentations, just to name a few, are located. From the contributor perspective you can earn extra cash and enticing prizes just by uploading notes. Nittany Notes requires contributors to take notes for every class in the semester in order to contribute, which is a lot of pressure to put on one individual, to be responsible for everything the teacher says all semester.  With GradeGuru contributors can put up any amount of notes they attain from class, as well as a variety of other helpful materials such as exam study guides and assignment related material. GradeGuru allows students to compare notes on a national level, and students are able to access notes from different colleges and universities for similar classes. The array of knowledge on GradeGuru is from a much larger selection.

My advice to Penn State students next time any are considering purchasing Nittany Notes is log into GradeGuru and see if they can find what they’re looking for before paying.