GradeGuru
Encyclopedia
GradeGuru.com, by McGraw-Hill Higher Education is a free study network where college students can share and find class-specific study notes, learn collaboratively and build their academic reputations to earn rewards, internships and career opportunities.
GradeGuru’s university- and class-specific communities provide a social learning environment for students at universities in the US, UK and Canada .
Content on GradeGuru is shared by students from various disciplines. GradeGuru rewards students who share their study notes with points and Status Badges. The better a students rating, the more their status grows within the community. The more views each file shared by a student receives, the more points a student earns, which can be traded in for rewards in the GradeGuru rewards store.
Students can also search for study materials shared by a fellow classmate to help them improve their understanding of classroom concepts, offer them the opportunity to see a variety of study methods, and work out what's best for them.
. The site was launched in the United States in June 2008. Just as MIT Open Courseware
marked a shift in the way academics leverage the web to spread knowledge, GradeGuru was created to support the concept of Open Access by facilitating an environment where students can engage with one another and offer peer-feedback while accessing study materials that support their learning styles. GradeGuru's development was also based on a status system, recognizing students for their thought leadership and involvement with the GradeGuru community by awarding them status badges. Status badges are publicly displayed and also grant the student access to exclusive Guru Privileges. Guru privileges includes access to GradeGuru's Guru Careers Program, which connects students with recruiters and organizations for internships and entry level positions.
Since exiting its beta stage, Gradeguru has implemented features within the platform to continue fostering student collaboration and knowledge sharing. GradeGuru launched its University Specific Community Pages to offer students the ability to search for school specific study materials, school specific courses and classmates to form online study groups.
GradeGuru has also introduced GradeGuru Tools, a digital app store, as an additional resource center for students and academics alike. Offered in the GradeGuru Tools app store is the GradeGuru Citation Manager which manages references for papers, essays and assignments: Citation Manager automatically captures a students citations as they use online resources at the click of a button. As well as GradeGuru Link List, a time-saving tool for instructors and students. Instructors can easily create annotated reading lists with a single shortened URL to share with their students. Students can then access the assignment with one link. Students can create reference lists with notes to share with group members or to track their own references while doing research.
sites, GradeGuru’s content is monitored by its users. Its members review and rate the information for the benefit of the community. The top-rated notes have a higher chance of being returned by the search engine so that students can easily access the most prominent resources.
is a serious concern for academic institutions and for students. GradeGuru’s Community Standards are clear on this issue, emphasizing that it should not be done under any circumstances. GradeGuru offers free advice on its web-site for students about plagiarism – what it means and how to ensure all sources are correctly referenced. In order to combat the potential for inappropriate use of the site’s content, GradeGuru is working with TurnItin
, the leading anti-plagiarism detection tool. GradeGuru also emphasizes that all content must be 100% student created.
GradeGuru’s university- and class-specific communities provide a social learning environment for students at universities in the US, UK and Canada .
Content on GradeGuru is shared by students from various disciplines. GradeGuru rewards students who share their study notes with points and Status Badges. The better a students rating, the more their status grows within the community. The more views each file shared by a student receives, the more points a student earns, which can be traded in for rewards in the GradeGuru rewards store.
Students can also search for study materials shared by a fellow classmate to help them improve their understanding of classroom concepts, offer them the opportunity to see a variety of study methods, and work out what's best for them.
History
GradeGuru was started in Great Britain in August 2007, as a study tool offered by the McGraw-Hill Companies. The concept was based on the findings of research into how students study, conducted using methods of ethnographyEthnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
. The site was launched in the United States in June 2008. Just as MIT Open Courseware
MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare is an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to put all of the educational materials from its undergraduate- and graduate-level courses online, partly free and openly available to anyone, anywhere. MIT OpenCourseWare is a large-scale, web-based publication of...
marked a shift in the way academics leverage the web to spread knowledge, GradeGuru was created to support the concept of Open Access by facilitating an environment where students can engage with one another and offer peer-feedback while accessing study materials that support their learning styles. GradeGuru's development was also based on a status system, recognizing students for their thought leadership and involvement with the GradeGuru community by awarding them status badges. Status badges are publicly displayed and also grant the student access to exclusive Guru Privileges. Guru privileges includes access to GradeGuru's Guru Careers Program, which connects students with recruiters and organizations for internships and entry level positions.
Since exiting its beta stage, Gradeguru has implemented features within the platform to continue fostering student collaboration and knowledge sharing. GradeGuru launched its University Specific Community Pages to offer students the ability to search for school specific study materials, school specific courses and classmates to form online study groups.
GradeGuru has also introduced GradeGuru Tools, a digital app store, as an additional resource center for students and academics alike. Offered in the GradeGuru Tools app store is the GradeGuru Citation Manager which manages references for papers, essays and assignments: Citation Manager automatically captures a students citations as they use online resources at the click of a button. As well as GradeGuru Link List, a time-saving tool for instructors and students. Instructors can easily create annotated reading lists with a single shortened URL to share with their students. Students can then access the assignment with one link. Students can create reference lists with notes to share with group members or to track their own references while doing research.
Disciplines Covered
Architecture, business and management, chemistry and physics, computer science, culture, gender & sexuality, earth sciences, education, engineering, history, journalism, media & communications, languages & linguistics , law, library & museum studies, life sciences, literature, mathematics, medicine and health sciences, other sciences, philosophy, psychology, public affairs & administration, religion, social sciences and services, space sciences, visual & performing arts.Rewards
Students who share their study materials earn points every time their files are viewed by members of the community. The more popular the study notes are, and the better ratings they receive, the more points they get. They can then exchange these points for rewards. Rewards include gift cards from vendors like Best Buy, iTunes, and Starbucks, and they can also be used to make a charitable donation.Reviewing process
Similar to many Web 2.0Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
sites, GradeGuru’s content is monitored by its users. Its members review and rate the information for the benefit of the community. The top-rated notes have a higher chance of being returned by the search engine so that students can easily access the most prominent resources.
Plagiarism concerns
PlagiarismPlagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
is a serious concern for academic institutions and for students. GradeGuru’s Community Standards are clear on this issue, emphasizing that it should not be done under any circumstances. GradeGuru offers free advice on its web-site for students about plagiarism – what it means and how to ensure all sources are correctly referenced. In order to combat the potential for inappropriate use of the site’s content, GradeGuru is working with TurnItin
Turnitin
Turnitin is an Internet-based plagiarism-detection service created by iParadigms, LLC. Typically, universities and high schools buy licenses to submit essays to the Turnitin website, which checks the documents for originality...
, the leading anti-plagiarism detection tool. GradeGuru also emphasizes that all content must be 100% student created.