Hey Gurus,

My name is Mary Claire Kilmer-Lipinski and I am the new student blog editor and social media intern for GradeGuru. I am a senior Strategic Communications major with a Marketing minor at Miami University in Ohio. Last semester, I was a Campus Brand Ambassador for GradeGuru. This semester I decided to switch over to editorial and social media and provide a student perspective to GradeGuru’s digital presence. I am excited to connect with current and new readers.

Throughout the semester, I will be blogging about different trends related to college students, learning, and educational technology. I will also be inviting professors and students to participate in the conversation and contribute thoughtful articles. Blogs have always been an important source of news in my professional and personal life. Previously I worked with Time Out Chicago, Zig, and Delta Zeta headquarters. At Time Out Chicago, I was in charge of researching and learning about social media and how to implement a social media strategy for Time Out Chicago using Twitter and Facebook pages. While juggling the social media project, I was also working at Zig, an advertising agency in Chicago.

In my free time, I live in a house with ten girls and enjoy being a second semester senior. Most of my time is consumed by job searching but if I have some time to spare, I love watching reality TV. As trashy as it can be, it is interesting to see how the dynamics of television has changed with these TV shows; plus the characters are great entertainment.

Hopefully this post lets you know who I am and where I come from. I am excited to see where this semester takes us. Let the blogging begin!

Are there any specific topics you’d like me to cover this semester?

Are you a graphic designer, interested in graphic design or know someone who is? submit your application for the GradeGuru Design Challenge and enter to become our next freelance designer.  The winner of the competition will earn $100, have their design implemented as part of McGraw-Hill Education’s first web startup (nice for your portfolio) and then become our ongoing freelance design consultant  at a rate of $20/hour. The Deadline is March 8th, 2010.

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR DESIGNS

There are two ways to enter the competition:

1. Design a GradeGuru Facebook Page

One of the first projects for our design challenge winner will be to redesign our Facebook page to include a multi-page, user-friendly layout that communicates the GradeGuru brand and motivates users to become fans. For the submission, we would like to see how you would design the landing page of Facebook.com/gradeguru.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Include the GradeGuru logo and brand identity
• The goal of the landing page is to capture the attention of new viewers, turn them into fans, engage them with our content
• Don’t worry so much about the copy
• The page should include the GradeGuru logo, buttons

Fan pages we like: AT&T, Pringles, Adidas

2. Design a stylish GradeGuru t-shirt for a national online giveaway contest

Design styles we like: American Apparel, retro athletic jerseys, Japanese pop art, urban pop art (graffiti inspired)

Brand assets

• GradeGuru Blog
• GradeGuru Blog About Page (logos included)
• GradeGuru Privileges
• GradeGuru Vimeo Video Channel

GradeGuru was just announced as a finalist for the 2010 CODiE award for the “Best Educational Use of a Technology Device”!

About the Award Category: The Best Educational Use of a Technology Device category awards the best educational software solution, either curriculum or administrative, designed for technology hardware devices, including handhelds, PDAs, tablets, laptops, interactive white board or integrated hardware/software solutions.

Judging is based on:
• Appropriate for users in diverse instructional settings
• Appropriate use of a technology device
• Overall visual/program aesthetics
• Provides information and support for users
• Software design successfully targets designated student or educator needs

About the CODiE Awards: The CODiE Awards, originally called the Excellence in Software Awards, were established in 1986 by the Software Publishers Association (SPA), now the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), so that pioneers of the then-nascent software industry could evaluate and honor each other’s work. Since then, the CODiE Awards program has carried out the same purpose – to showcase the software and information industry’s finest products and services and to honor excellence in corporate achievement and philanthropic efforts.

GradeGuru Link List tool from The GradeGuru Team on Vimeo.

Update: GradeGuru Link List is now available as a Firefox add-on.  To install visit Firefox: GradeGuru Link List

We’ve just released the GradeGuru Link List- a time-saving tool for instructors and students alike. Instructors can easily create annotated reading lists with a single shortened URL to share with their students. Students can then access the assignment with one simple link.

If you are working in a group and want to share a bunch of links with your comments, or save a set of online favorites with your notes for a paper that you might use later, just create a Link List, capturing the URLs as you go and Link List will provide a single destination URL.

How to install and use:

• Go to gradeguru.com/tools
• Make sure your Bookmarks Toolbar is visible
• Drag the Link List icon up to your Bookmarks Toolbar
• Start aggregating your links as you browse the web

Watch our Video Tutorial:

GradeGuru Link List from the GradeGuru Team on Vimeo

We’ve just released new course pages just in time for the spring semester!

Course Pages will now support our University Specific Pages by helping you easily find all notes for specific courses at your school.

How it works?

• Visit any university specific page (e.g. Cornell University)
• Click on the subject you need notes for
• Click on your course
• Access all notes uploaded for that specific course

By clicking on a specific course, you are automatically taken to the course page, making it easier for you to access all the notes available for your course.

More updates to come!!

GradeGuru Citation Manager from The GradeGuru Team on Vimeo.

Update: GradeGuru Citation Manager is now available as a Firefox add-on.  To install visit Firefox: GradeGuru Citation Manager

We’ve just released the Citation Manager Bookmarklet – a great tool for automatically capturing your sources for papers, essays and assignments straight from your browser. In our next release we will be adding the ability to save your citations to your GradeGuru account and access them from any computer. We’ll keep you posted!

How to Install & Use:

• Go to gradeguru.com/tools
• Add Citation Manager to your toolbar (see the video below – really easy!)
• Start doing your research and automatically capture the quotes and references you need
• Paste the automatically created citations into your paper, ppt, Google doc, etc

Watch our Video Tutorial

Let us know by filling out the 5 question survey below:

iPhone App Idea Survey

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.

We have optimized our note reader to make it easier to share, rate and comment on notes:

1. You can now share each note on Facebook, Digg, Twitter and other platforms by clicking on the SHARE button in the upper bar of the note reader.
2. Each note has it’s own URL that can be shared (our next step will be to make the URL cleaner with www.gradeguru.com/username/fielname – this is in the works)
3. We have brought the rating to the top
4. We added a link to the contributor’s profile at the top – click View other notes by angela_s
5. You can now see file details (e.g. school, course, textbook, professor, year level, etc) above the note reader by click on Show file details rather than having to go to another page.

Add ratings and comments above note reader:

See note details above note reader:

Thanks to all of your feedback, we’re revamping our point system on September 15.

We are increasing your ability to earn based on how many people view and rate your notes. There more popular your notes are, the more points you will get.  There will be NO limit on how much you can earn, just make sure you get good notes up there and share the link to your notes with your friends and classmate via Facebook, email, IM, etc.  

Tips for increasing your visibility:

1. Go to GradeGuru and link your GradeGuru account to your Facebook account. Then when you share notes, your friends will get an update in their feed. Click on the Facebook icon on our homepage.
   
2. Share your GradeGuru notes with your classmates. Send them your personal GradeGuru URL.
3. Share your notes via Facebook, Delicious, Twitter, etc by opening your notes on the site and using the Share tool.
4. Invite your friends to join GradeGuru