Having trouble staying motivated during this first week of class? One website wants to give students a monetary incentive to kick it up a notch this semester.
Ultrinsic.com offer students the chance predict what grade they will receive in a course and place a wager on the result. CEO Steven Wolf explained the concept of the website in the following scenario: A student is taking a class and decides he needs motivation to do well. He registers with the site and says that he would like a $25 incentive to make a certain grade. The site then looks at his past academic record, determines the odds of success and asks the student for a certain amount of money. For example, if the calculated odds were 2-1 and the website asked the student to put forward $75, the student would get $125 if he made his grade and would lose $75 if he did not.
Wolf said the website is designed for "students who need more motivation to do well in school." The website provides a "good, concrete" incentive for students to do well in class, he said, especially in classes that don't capture students' interest or that are more difficult.
The site which was only available at three schools last spring, is now available at 36 schools across the United States, though not yet at the University. Wolf said he could see the site expanding to include the University within a few semesters.
Online gambling is illegal in the United States, but Wolf insists his site meets federal laws.
"The definition of gambling is that you are involved in something you do not have control over," he said, "but the student has control over his grades."
Law Prof. Darryl Brown agreed that the site appears to be legal. Gambling is defined, he said, as "any game in which the outcome depends mostly on chance and in which you wager money."
Although students must wager money on Ultrinsic, Brown said the outcome depends more on students' skills than on pure chance, making it technically within gambling law.
"If students are betting on the grades they are going to make, it probably does meet the legal definition of gambling because participants can control the outcome or at least have some amount of influence over the outcome," Brown said.
Though students on Grounds agreed that the website seemed perfectly legal, most agreed they would not use it if it became available.
"There's nothing particularly wrong with it," third-year College student Emily Hearle said, but added that should would not use such a website for herself.
First-year graduate College student Adam Tiller agreed that he would not choose to bet on his grades, adding that there are many other incentives to do well.
"Presumably there are all sorts of other rewards for doing well, like scholarships and such," Tiller said.
Wolf maintained that his website is a positive tool for students.
"This site was designed for students to enhance their experience at school," Wolf said. He insisted that the site is all about motivating students to do well and could actually be a powerful teaching tool.
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