Is Web site helpful … or unethical?
May 3, 2009 by Geneva ReidPosted in: Latest News & Views, Tech News
Let’s say a student oversleeps and misses taking notes for an important class lecture. What are his options?
Well, he could ask to borrow a classmate’s notes – or talk to the professor.
Or … he could simply log on to GradeGuru.com
GradeGuru is a notes-sharing Web site for college students. After creating a free account, they can upload their class notes and papers, making them available to other students.
And here’s the twist: Students earn points based on the quality of their notes and how often other students use them. The points, which go into a Paypal account, then can be converted into cash.
And in case the word “plagiarism” comes to mind, rest assured: There’s a section of the home page spelling out GradeGuru’s policy on plagiarism, along with a “Community Standards” link. In addition, all documents are scanned for potential plagiarism.
GradeGuru was launched in 2008 and as of this writing, has 322 colleges participating (and students contributing to the site have earned more than $23,000 to date).
Is it ethical or not? You make the call – and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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July 2nd, 2009 at 10:58 am
Students have been exchanging notes as long as I can remember. This appears to be the electronic, entrepreneurial version of the practice. Looking at other people’s notes can help students who do attend class, not just those who don’t, and I don’t see a problem with it. Anyway, instructors often put their lecture notes on Blackboard pages. Sharing essays and research papers is somewhat problematic, but professors need to stay ahead of young plagiarists by keeping writing assignments fresh and creative.
January 8th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
I do find some troubling issue in this.
I am quiet aware that publishing companies, (especially in book publishing industry), they are losing profits as students do not purchase book from their sites. Students often look for used book, and e-book to lower their costs.
I find this GradeGuru bit unethical for the following reasons:
1) Students get paid only after getting 500 points. $5 for getting 500 points, and each star point is 10. Therefore, you have to publish many of your private notes to others, and majority of the star contributing students are from private university (including UPenn, Harvard). These students have already support of the family to get through college. As a fact, it is not possible for students affording
$50,000 per year education fee in private universities or colleges.
2) Why would GradeGuru do this?
Although GradeGuru does operate as non-paid fee, it is likely this company will covert this into paid-membership or similar to Notehall.com. NoteHall.com buys and sells students notes for profit, and I find GradeGuru operating in the similar situation under the premise of “free”. What this company intends to do is gather large number of students and use their website as a “advertising space” by many consumer-product manufacturing companies.
3) Internships
GradeGuru, operated under McGraw-Hill, is currently employing many students to act as brand representatives in various university. But unlike other companies’ brand ambassador, they do not provide any compensation in regards to their effort. If you google and search for brand ambassador, they receive at least $10/hour for their effort in marketing, PR, and event efforts.
So why should students join this? You’ve already spend several hours taking notes and spreading your knowledge for free.
But in return, you get so less:
They provide job experience? (well, you can work in other companies, get both money and EXPERIENCE.
Freebies/merchandises? (the company will give out their marketing products to make you use their products more or use you to spread their product information).
Network/Internship opportunity? (They already are losing money in the publishing industry, and have less than 5% annual growth rate in the book publishing. Check the online for “book publishing industry” and see if they earned higher revenues. Guess not! Why would they hire an un-experienced, just-graduated student? They would rather hire some with +2-3 years of experienced professionals, who can work right away and will do the work of entry jobs. )
I do not recommend you working for this company.