UT students utilize StudyBlue notes

StudyBlue, the student content-driven study site, is making its mark at UT. Ben Jedd, StudyBlue chief communications officer, said more than 50 percent of undergraduates at UT are on StudyBlue.

“I am really impressed with the adoption (of StudyBlue) at UT,” Jedd said.

Josh Campbell, the StudyBlue campus representative for the university, said UT has the highest percentage of undergraduates on StudyBlue of all participating schools. Jedd said UT has more than 15,000 notes on the site.

As the campus representative, Campbell, senior in nursing, hands out T-shirts, fliers, highlighters and puzzles to increase awareness about StudyBlue. He said the feedback he has gotten about StudyBlue has been very positive.

“I always get good reactions when I am handing things out,” Campbell said. “People always say, ‘I love StudyBlue,’ when they see what I am handing out.”

Clarke Riner, senior in biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology, said he is a frequent StudyBlue user.

“It’s a good way to find notes that I’ve missed and to find tests from previous years,” he said.

Campbell said when he walks through the library to hand out T-shirts and fliers, he always sees people on StudyBlue.

StudyBlue has a lot to offer students. Because the site’s content is all student-created, students have much more say than on other sites, such as Blackboard.

“(The creators of StudyBlue) were unhappy with Blackboard because there was too much professor power,” Jedd said. “StudyBlue is a place for students.”

Jedd said that, before StudyBlue, there were no strong study aids to meet the needs of students. He said the best thing about StudyBlue is that it allows students to work together to study.

“Research has proven that collaboration is the best way to study, and StudyBlue gives students the opportunity to share information,” Jedd said.

Besides sharing notes, StudyBlue also allows students to create flashcards and has a new quizzing feature that asks true/false and matching questions based on study material.

Campbell said StudyBlue has recently created an application for the iPhone, where students can view notes and flashcards on their phones. He said an application for the Blackberry may also be in the works.

Besides a study tool, StudyBlue can also be a source of income for college students. Jedd said the site has a rewards program that pays students for their contributions.

Students receive 50 cents for each set of notes they add and an additional 50 cents for each person that rates their notes.

Some students have made hundreds of dollars by adding notes. Campbell said study guides seem to be the most lucrative.

“I put up a study guide for my 90-person nursing class and made more than a hundred dollars,” he said.

Campbell said that problems with money scams last semester led StudyBlue to create a more foolproof system to rate notes.

“Now it’s harder to cheat the system, because to rate notes and get money for them, you have to be in the class,” Campbell said.

Campbell said people can still view notes in classes they are not registered for but cannot rate them.

StudyBlue also has a system to make sure notes on the site are quality study aides.

“If two students click a file to say that it’s bad, it is immediately removed from the site,” Jedd said.

Campbell, who said he was a frequent user of StudyBlue before becoming the UT campus representative, encourages students to use the site.

“It’s an easy tool to use if you miss class,” he said. “It is also a good way to double-check your notes and your answers on study guides.”

Jedd said StudyBlue was created in 2007 by two students at the University of Wisconsin. One student was in business and the other student was in computer science. Now the site has more than 2,100 universities and more than 1,800 high schools signed up.

Campbell said Wisconsin has the second-highest percentage of students on StudyBlue, topped only by UT.

To get involved with StudyBlue, Jedd said the site offers internships and other jobs, such as bloggers and campus representatives, that can be found by clicking on the “jobs” section at the bottom of the StudyBlue home page.