GradeGuru
 | |
| Subsidiary of McGraw-Hill Companies | |
| Industry | Publishing |
| Founded | New York City (2007) |
| Headquarters | New York City |
Area served | US, UK |
Key people | Emily Sawtell |
| Website | http://gradeguru.com/ |
GradeGuru.com, by McGraw-Hill Higher Education was a free study network where college students can share and find class-specific study notes, learn collaboratively, and build an academic reputations to earn rewards, internships and career opportunities.
The site was started in Great Britain in August 2007 by the McGraw-Hill Companies as a study tool, and launched in the United States in June 2008.On the 27th March 2012 it was announced via their Facebook page that GradeGuru would be closing down on the 29th April.[1] The company suggested those interested could continue to share their notes and connections in Chegg’s Notehall and Unigo.[2]
Purpose
The site was created to provide an environment for students to engage with one another and offer peer-feedback while accessing study materials that support their learning styles.
Operation
The project was based on a status system, recognizing students for their leadership and involvement by awarding them status badges. Status badges included access to GradeGuru's Guru Careers Program, which connects students with recruiters and organizations for internships and entry level positions.
GradeGuru began on a subject basis, but launched university-specific community pages to offer the ability to search for school specific study materials, school specific courses and classmates to form online study groups. The site caters to students in a wide range of subjects at universities in the US, UK and Canada .[3] Students can search for study materials shared by a classmate. Those who share their study notes with points and Status Badges. Points are awarded on the basis of the number of views each file shared by a student receives; the points can be traded in for rewards in the GradeGuru rewards store.[4] Rewards include gift cards from popular vendors like Best Buy, iTunes, and Starbucks, or can be used to make a charitable donation.
The site's content is monitored by its users. Its members review and rate the information, and the top-rated notes have a higher chance of being returned by the search engine so that students can easily access the most prominent resources.
The site introduced GradeGuru Tools, a digital app store, as an additional resource center for students and academics. The store provided a citation manager to manage references for papers, essays and assignments, and a Link List tool for instructors to create annotated reading lists with a single shortened URL
Plagiarism concerns
GradeGuru’s Community Standards try to prevent plagiarism, emphasizing that it should not be done under any circumstances. The site offers advice about plagiarism – what it means and how to ensure all sources are correctly referenced. In order to combat the potential for inappropriate use of the site’s content, the site works with TurnItin, the leading anti-plagiarism detection tool.[5] GradeGuru also emphasizes that all content must be totally student created.[6]
References
- ↑
- ↑ Nick DeSantis, "Social-studying network to close", Chronicle of Higher Education, April 6, 2012
- ↑ http://mcgraw-hill.presslift.com/gradeguru-on-campus
- ↑ Himeles, Sara. "Note-sharing site lets students cash in on class notes". Retrieved January 20, 2009. (English)
- ↑ Sharon. "GradeGuru – notes sharing by students, for students". Retrieved May 9, 2008. (English)
- ↑ Fabel, Leah. "Growing number of Web sites offer students money for class notes". Retrieved February 5, 2009. (English)