ABC News released an article today about the trend towards college students sharing notes through online knowledge-sharing networks such as GradeGuru. The article, “More Students Paying for Class Notes,” explores the future of university level note-sharing in a world where students are increasingly using social media and online networks as tools for academic support and peer collaboration.

The article cites GradeGuru’s growth to over 300 universities in two years as an indicator of the rapid rise in demand for online communities centered on student collaboration. It highlights communities such as GradeGuru as not only serving as a note-sharing center, but also a forum where students can “build online communities, form study groups, and give feedback by rating each other’s notes.” GradeGuru is unique from the other sites mentioned in that all content on the site is available for free.

Skepticism of student online communities is addressed in the article, as some instructors believe students use note-sharing services as a substitute for going to class. GradeGuru founder Emily Sawtell said that based on McGraw-Hill Education’s research, students who use GradeGuru don’t attend class any less, instead using study materials found on GradeGuru as additional support. Further debunking the idea that students use collaboration tools as a substitute for doing their own work is cited support from academia, including GradeGuru’s recent selection as a 2010 CODiE Award Finalist.

As for GradeGuru’s success, Sawtell states, “I’d like to think it’s [successful] because it serves a need. It really taps into an activity that students wanted to be able to do, and it makes it now more efficient and gives students more reason to be open and collaborative with their peers.”

For the full article, visit: More Students Paying for Class Notes

GradeGuru has just been recognized as an Effective Practice Award Recipient by the Sloan Consortium, an association of institutions and organizations of higher education engaged in online learning.  The award will be presented at the conference, held on July 21 in San Jose, California.

The  Sloan-C Effective Practice award recognizes educators, institutions and organizations for effectively innovating to realize the potential of online learning in higher education.   Candidates for the award are judged based on strict criteria including demonstrating researched evidence of a significant impact on learning outcomes, broad scope and application in multiple learning contexts, and an overarching test of agreement that “Every institution should be doing this!”

Emily Sawtell, GradeGuru founder and Senior Director of Student Innovations at McGraw-Hill will be accepting the award on behalf of the GradeGuru team and will present at the 3^rd Annual Sloan Conference on “Ushering in the academic social web to enhance student engagement and increase retention.”

“The GradeGuru Team is honored to be an Effective Practice Award recipient. We are thrilled that our work to help students help themselves and each other is being recognized by the academic fraternity,” said Sawtell.  Recognition  of the Sloan-C Effective practice award demonstrates GradeGuru’s ability to facilitate the practice of collaboration, knowledge sharing, peer review and support and online study groups among college students.

For more information, visit: McGraw-Hill’s Knowledge Sharing Network GradeGuru Wins Sloan Consortium’s Effective Practice Award

US News & World Report’s Rebecca Kern recently covered “5 Social Media Tools for College Students”, The article featured new social media tools that are offering students a new way to share and collaborate academic work. Among the 5 Tools featured was GradeGuru!

Here is a highlight from the article:

“Roughly 52 percent of the world’s population is under 30 years old, and in the United States, 75 percent of this generation uses social media, based on a 2010 Pew Research Center study on the Millennial generation. College students make up a significant segment of that population. Just as college students are using social media websites like Facebook and Twitter to share their social lives online, new social media tools are a way these students can share their academic work online as well.”

For the full article see: US News & World Report: 5 Social Media Tools For College Students

The Western Courier just featured an article, GradeGuru Gives Study Incentive, highlighting some of GradeGuru’s key components such as sharing notes with friends, creating a community where students can receive awards for their contributions and discussing the integrity of the website.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

“All of the content on GradeGuru is moderated,” said Angela Santiago, Careers Specialist for GradeGuru in an e-mail. “We do not consent students uploading answers to quizzes or any other study materials that promote cheating. Our moderators scour the site checking to ensure there is no inappropriate content (e.g. quizzes, exams, lecture slides) or copyright/ university property (e.g. past papers that should not be there, or PowerPoints the professor wrote, not the student). In addition to this, all of GradeGuru’s content is submitted to TurnItIn (students must consent to this) helping to ensure that the site remains plagiarism free.”

“Another core feature of GradeGuru is the review and rewards system,” Sawtell said. “When students share their notes, other members of the site can give the notes a rating (out of five stars), according to how helpful and useful the notes were for them in achieving their course goals. As members use your notes, you accumulate points. How many points you get depends on how well rated your notes are.”

“It sounds really cool to me. I can see it being handy if you miss a class. You can easily get caught up by seeing other people’s notes.”

Read the full article here:  GradeGuru Gives Study Incentive

In a recent eSchool News article titled ” Class in 140 characters or less?”,  GradeGuru Founder, Emily Sawtell and Dr. Kathleen King discuss their perspective on social media in the classroom and  share research that points to a staggering reason why 50 percent of students today will not graduate from college.

The eSchool News article  “Class in 140 characters or less?” covers the increasing need for student engagement in the class room and how social media can be leveraged to solve this crisis.

Check out some of the points from the article highlighted below:

“In a recent McGraw-Hill Education survey, a staggering 98 percent of students agreed social networking is beneficial to their education. Yet a CDW-G survey indicated only 14 percent of instructors believe there is educational value in using social networking sites.”

“This disconnect between student and instructor perceptions stretches across the range of social media sites and even to what many in the commercial sector now think of as traditional technologies.”

“Encouraging instructors to use social media and giving them incentives—like linking tenure to digital teaching innovation and using unique methods to engage and connect students in the classroom—will place colleges on the cutting edge and, most importantly, drive student performance and retention.”

To read the full article see : Class in 140 characters or less?

Visit WSJ on Campus to read the full article

If you’re used to high school work, college assignments can be pretty intimidating. In this article, The Wall Street Journal walks you through the best ways to approach assignments; a college sophomore shares her top study tips for finals; and an expert on study tools reveals how to cut through the anxiety and do your best work.

Jeff Wendt from Today’s Campus recently sat down with our founder Emily Sawtell to discuss the motives behind GradeGuru and what changes she foresees in the future for the educational technology landscape.

Check out some of the Q&A from the segment:

How might GradeGuru benefit a college?

It provides a ready ability to build community and camaraderie among classmates.  Commuter schools, community colleges and online schools benefit greatly when they provide such.  Also, any college or university can use GradeGuru to help students improve their study habits, and thus improve student performance without taxing faculty.

Do you see a killer app on the horizon?

Many of the magic apps of the future will be driven by two success factors.  Do they serve students well?  Do the apps themselves inter-operate well?

To learn more see the entire segment here: Today’s Campus Q&A with Jeff Wendt

Our founder Emily Sawtell, recently contributed to Dan Northern’s CollegeThrive.com where she shared her insight on how students can leverage the internet to boost their grades and ensure academic success.

Want to learn what resources are available to help you achieve high grades? Check out the full post here: http://collegethrive.com/use-the-web-to-boost-your-gpa

GradeGuru founder Emily Sawtell was recently featured on Tech Talk with Craig Peterson on Boston radio where she discussed the GradeGuru concept and the original research that went into GradeGuru to help students. Emily also discussed the new functions that are currently being integrated into the site to increase site collaboration and real time sharing.

Check out Emily’s segment on Tech Talk: GradeGuru on Tech Talk with Craig Peterson

About Tech Talk’s Craig Peterson: Craig Peterson, host of Tech Talk, is among the top 200 Computer and Internet Consultants in the United States with over 30 years of marketing, design, implementation and security experience. His radio show takes place every Saturday from Noon to 3pm in Boston.

We’d like to thank Caroline Tseng for participating in the interview. Caroline is an NYU Senior, GradeGuru user and author of the fashion blog street-spotted.com. We’ve also like to thank Fox 5 Tech Guru Brett Larson for his great reporting!

LINK: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/education