The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

Online notes pervert academics

COLLEGE students across the nation took a collective yawn and rolled over as StudentU.com went online last Wednesday and began posting lecture notes taken at 62 universities. The idea is not new - its predecessors include AccuNotes, a short-lived venture by a University student that came and went in the fall of 1997. Unfortunately for the excessively lethargic University student, only two University classes currently are included on the new Web site. Fortunately for the rest of the University community, only two University classes currently are included on the new Web site.

Though it's hard to accept sometimes, higher education, and much of what surrounds it, is married to business. The advent of StudentU.com, however, makes higher education look like business's whipping boy.

Students working for StudentU.com are expected to go to class and take notes (how novel) and get paid up to $300 a semester for posting these notes on the site. This doesn't mention the amount of money the site itself stands to make from advertisers. Aren't businesses supposed to profit those who do the work? One can be pretty confident that the professors whose lectures are posted won't be receiving residuals checks.

Peter Wood, a professor at Boston University, told The New York Times that his school may take legal action against StudentU.com ("Free College Notes on Web: Aid to Learning, or Laziness?" Sept. 9, 1999).

Why not? The site essentially is stealing and profiting from the intellectual property of those professors who have spent endless hours researching their material and preparing it for dissemination in the classroom.

The issue goes beyond money. John Syer, a professor at California State University, told the Times that he may alter his lectures if he expects what he says to be posted online. "I'm going to get up there and take on the policies of the U.S. government, the policies of the Indonesian government, the policies of the Chinese government. If I think this is something that is going to be quoted globally, it may change what I say." Professors also may be reluctant to touch on topics of current research for fear that their ideas, once broadcast into cyberspace, may be stolen. They should not have such a prohibition placed on their scholarly work.

Of greater significance is the fact that the context and manner in which professors present material is important. Otherwise they would just post their own lecture notes and the University could turn Cabell Hall into a parking garage. The personality and character of a professor's lecture is lost at StudentU.com - so, too, may be the accuracy.

StudentU.com creator Oran Wolf told the Times that he doesn't necessarily seek out top students to work for his site. "They might have a kind of learning disability, a test anxiety, where they don't do well on tests. But they might take 15 pages of notes on a given lecture." Fifteen pages of notes from a learning-disabled student hardly sounds like a good substitute for attending class.

This, however, is one of the concerns most often voiced when it comes to posting lecture notes online - that students will then deem it unnecessary to go to class. Though the site is designed to supplement students' class notes or serve as a substitute when a student is ill, the potential for abuse is high.

The probability, though, is low, particularly if the quality of the notes is suspect. Apparently, the learning-disabled student who used to have someone else taking notes for him is selling his elongated version. It's unlikely that too many will place their trust in him.

Moreover, attendance at a lecture means more to most students than two, or even 15, pieces of scribbled-on paper. The experience, at least in theory, should amount to more than the basic facts and figures gleaned from the lecture. If that's not the case, lectures should be abolished and replaced by an assigned reading list. This seems unlikely.

Why, then, if the use of this service would be minimal, is its existence a problem? As those involved in higher education are constantly reminded, money and those who disperse it play a significant role. At times this role is a positive one - one that furthers the educational goals of an institution in the manner of donations or state grants. In other cases, such as that of StudentU.com, the ideals of higher education are perverted for private financial gain.

(Chris DelGrosso's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily.)

Comments

Latest Podcast

The University’s Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment and Undergraduate Admission, Greg Roberts, provides listeners with an insight into how the University conducts admissions and the legal subtleties regarding the possible end to the consideration of legacy status.



https://open.spotify.com/episode/02ZWcF1RlqBj7CXLfA49xt