Note swapping service comes to IU

Miss a class and need the notes? A new Internet forum will help track them down.\nNoteSwap.com is an online environment where students can exchange course notes with classmates. The service will help students supplement their own notes or find notes from a missed class.\n"It's an opportunity to create a virtual classroom," said Ryan Grush, the Louisiana State University junior who founded the Web site.\nAnyone with a university e-mail account can register at NoteSwap and any NoteSwap user can post course notes for other users to download, said Chandler Cherco, LSU senior and NoteSwap public relations director. Although the Web site does not guarantee content or quality of posted notes, multiple sets of notes might be available from several students in one course. \n"We envision NoteSwap.com as becoming the academic counterpart to Facebook's widely successful social network," Cherco said.\nNoteSwap rewards users who actively contribute to the service, Grush said. Use of the Web site is dependent upon an extensive rating system that represents each user's level of participation. Points are awarded when users upload notes, and downloading notes requires a certain amount of points. \n"We're not catering to slackers," Grush said.\nThe idea of NoteSwap was conceived during fall 2005 after Hurricane Katrina turned the Gulf Coast upside down. Students transferring out of the New Orleans area after the storm found themselves missing notes from the courses at their new universities, which were already a few weeks into the semester. After Grush received numerous e-mails from new classmates looking for notes, the idea for a note-sharing Web site was born.\nAfter achieving success at LSU, NoteSwap expanded to other Southern universities with large numbers of students who transferred because of Katrina, Cherco said. Numerous large universities from across the country, including IU, have been added this fall.\nThe Web site will unveil a new look within the next week. The update -- including an improved professor ratings system, expanded message boards and customizable user profiles -- is intended to expand the academic resources available to students.\nAlthough the service is new to IU, a few students have already posted notes for selected courses. NoteSwap staff expects more notes to become available once more students find out about the Web site.\n"If I have to upload lots of notes or if the teacher posts notes, I don't think it will affect me," said Catie Sweetwood, a senior majoring in sport marketing and management and sport communication. "I think it would depend on the class. If I didn't know anyone in the class and I need to get notes, I would use it."\nIn order to be safe from academic misconduct charges, students should use their best moral judgment about what becomes available on the Web site and how that material is used, said Pam Freeman, associate dean of students and director of student ethics.\n"Students must be responsible enough to attend class because there is no substitute for the experience of being in the classroom with a professor," Freeman said.\nIU administrators are aware that students currently share notes, Freeman said, and there is not a policy against note-sharing unless a professor specifies it is not allowed. However, students should act responsibly if graded material turns up online, she said.\nIf a professor has specified an assignment should be done independently, use of the Web site for the assignment could possibly be considered academic misconduct, Freeman said. Posting graded materials could also be considered a violation of the policy against facilitating academic misconduct.\n"How (NoteSwap.com) is used will be critical for students," Freeman said.\nNoteSwap did not contact the universities before expanding the service, Grush said. All of the information -- including all course listings for every department and each professor's name -- was extracted from the universities' Web sites.\nGrush said about 80 schools will soon be listed on NoteSwap.com. IU joins LSU, Auburn University, University of California Los Angeles, University of Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Penn State, Wisconsin and others.