Entrepreneurs offer class notes online

Couldn't wake up in time for that 9 a.m. Econ class last Friday? Or any of your other morning classes? With midterms here and your class notes perhaps less than 100 percent complete, several young entrepreneurs are hoping to capitalize on students' desperation. Several recently launched World Wide Web sites -- such as StudentU.com, Study24-7.com and Versity.com -- are providing, for free, lecture notes from hundreds of classes being taught at colleges all across North America, including several dozen Penn courses. The sites also provide several other resources for students, including chat rooms for students to discuss class material and of course, an online shopping mall. But while many students see these sites as a way to sleep through class or skip a boring lecture, their founders say the intent is to be a supplement, not a replacement, for attending class. "[The notes are] not a replacement for anything," said Oran Wolf, president and founder of StudyFree, the company that maintains StudentU.com. "We're not taking the pen out of the student's hand," he added. And several Penn professors whose notes are now online -- without their permission --Esay that they don't mind as long as students know what they're getting. History Professor Thomas Childers -- who teaches the popular History 430: The Third Reich class -- stressed that his students should not rely on the notes. Childers said he tells his students right away that he expects their midterm essay to be a personal interpretation of what they've studied in class, not just a rewrite of what he said in lecture. "Even if everything goes well, who gets shortchanged?" Childers asked. "I'm not, you are -- the student." College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman said that while he has reservations about the fact that the companies do not ask permission from the instructor, he feels that the service could be an asset. "Anything that helps make a learning experience an active learning experience for students is in my opinion good," Beeman said. However, Beeman added, as a professor he would want to know -- and approve -- of the student taking the notes. "What is the competence of the note-takers?" he asked. Craig Green, co-founder of Study24-7.com, said having someone else take notes in class can allow a student to worry less about taking notes and concentrate more on understanding what the professor is saying. Knowing that they can obtain the day's notes online, "[students] can sit back in class and really focus in on concepts? that the professor is trying to convey," said Green, who graduated from the Wharton School in 1997. Students taking a class where there is enough demand for online notes can apply to the companies to be a notetaker and are paid to sit through all the semester classes and post their notes on the Internet. College senior Mark Glassman -- who takes notes in his Biological Basis of Behavior 109 class for Versity.com, pulling in about $30 a week -- said the monetary factor first drew him to the job, but he soon realized it was more work than he expected But Glassman said the job has forced him to be alert in class and study his notes within 24 hours -- the time Versity.com gives to post them. "If I were to contemplate skipping a class, this would kick me in the butt," he said. Both Wolf and Green said their services can enhance the classroom experience. "A lot of things that people just don't realize [is that] there's opportunity [on the site] to make the classroom much better," Wolf said. "If it's going to help a student, I really don't see why a professor would have an issue with it." Green compared the notes to a textbook, saying that lecturing from a book is equivalent to using someone else's interpretation of a subject to study. Both founders said that even with recent bad publicity, including some professors threatening to sue online note companies, their ventures have been successful. "Essentially, professors are concerned of the fact that their brick and mortar classrooms are about to undergo a major face-lift," Green said.