I was pointed in the direction of Mashable’s article on GradeGuru by a RT on twitter (thanks @loopyginee) and since I was contemplating blogging about “teaching” notes today (which I shall now do later) I thought this was an appropriate post for the day.
GradeGuru as mashable points out allows you to upload (and download class notes) – this has an option for UK universities – and even more importantly English law – which few collaboration sites do (There is of course a wide range of topics if you fancy learning something new, but the notes available are not displayed in the most coherent order as there is not a topic 1 through to 10 type of set up).
You can search by university/course as well as a range of other options. There appears to be nothing by way of LPC material – but for LLB students – there is some 150 notes on contract law just to get you started.
Of course this is by no means a substitute for your own work / note taking and despite a rating system you don’t know how good the material is – for example I read a piece by a Business and Language student from a pretty low university – and honestly, the quality wasn’t good – but I can see how it would help a more unmotivated student than myself. However when you typically borrow notes from a friend for a class you have missed – you will subconsciously pick someone who you know will have good notes. So gradeguru is not a substitute for asking friends first, but of course there is no reason why they might not be on the site themselves.
But if your own university has a collection of notes that is worth looking at – there is things on my university page that I remember doing at undergrad – and at least you know they are specific to your course. Of course half of the notes credit my ex-professors – I’m sure they’re not liking their notes (if copied straight from textbooks / lectures) being posted on the internet. What it is a good source of, is information on exam questions for LLB students. Which you can never have too many of.
Ironically today I was discussing with a fellow student about plagiarism today on the trip home. She was telling me about a class mate who lent notes to a “friend” who then copied her notes, used them in her coursework and both got done for plagiarism. Apparently the friend who copied failed to own up and they both got reported to the SRA. So after that story I don’t know how much I’d be willing to share with someone I didn’t know – at least not until I had finished the course.
Given that the site is not much use to an LPC student I won’t be signing up (have no idea how payment for uploads works) but you can view 10 notes with no sign up – so it’s worth having a browse.
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Sounds like a very clever idea TTT. I've never heard of this before. Personally, I'd be a little reluctant to use the notes on there if they were from a student who attended a different university to myself. This is only because although we might be being taught the same law, we're examined on it differently and so caselaw and certain points which our tutors might have emphasized on might not be in another uni. (For example)
ReplyDeleteThat said however, I wish I had something like this when doing my LLB just so that in areas where I felt less confident, I could read someone else's notes and be enlightened!
Hmmm, plagiarism is always a risk in note/work sharing! Scary stuff.
CBC
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I've been meaning to give grade guru a look all week. I see what you saying re. unmotivated students etc. but I don't see how grade guru can ever be seriously relied upon as a good source of material. I've spent a while on there browsing around and seriously, the content is terrible!
ReplyDeleteThere is no substitute for your own notes and the hard work that goes into creating them. For the more lazy, like you say, there are friends to borrow from etc etc. For academic subjects there are the Key Facts series of books or, God forbid 'nutshells' if you really hate yourself. I could never recommend that anybody base their notes on the trash that I've seen on grade guru. My hopes were not high for the quality of the content but I was taken by surprise at just how bad it was!
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your point about the books like nutshells and equivalents.
For my undergrad uni, some of the notes up there were exactly what I got anyway on my course, so even if it is readable - it's the stuff you've already received from your tutor. great!
Travis, thanks for checking out GradeGuru and blogging about us. My name is Emily Sawtell and I am the founder of GradeGuru. I wanted to take this opportunity to answer a few of your questions (and those of your commenters as well). GradeGuru operates in the UK and US and this semester we saw a significant increase of notes coming from Law Students. Of course, it is still early days for our community so we’re relying on thought leaders like you to share your knowledge with the rest of the community. Currently you get points for each set of notes you upload based on the quality of the notes (1-5 stars). The quality is determined by a team of peer reviewers that work internally with GradeGuru. After 3-5 days from the time of upload, you will receive a set of points that you can then redeem on the MyRewards page for cash and other prizes. We’re working towards developing new functionality to allow you to demonstrate your thought leadership based on your contributions and activity on the site.
ReplyDeleteGradeGuru has taken a strong stance against plagiarism by partnering with TurnItIn.com, the leading anti-plagiarism tool and the platform chosen overwhelmingly by academic institutions for ensuring originality in students’ work. If students were to attempt to submit materials from GradeGuru as their own for a course that uses TurnItIn, that material would be flagged as unoriginal. Furthermore, our site is stamped with the "Protected by TurnItIn" logo. This badge sends a strong signal to students about what they can and cannot do with GradeGuru resources and is a significant deterrent from unethical use of the site - our research supports the notion that students understand the seriousness of plagiarism and the implications of getting caught.
Emily Sawtell,
emily_sawtell@mcgraw-hill.com