Students’ class notes available online for a fee
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – It was named one of the 12 companies “transforming education” to watch this year by Forbes.
Flashnotes.com is a start-up company started several years ago that allows students to buy and sell their notes from classes online. It’s one of several note-sharing websites.
As finals week wraps up at many Indiana colleges, company officials say when those exams are done, officials say students can actually make money off the work they did this semester.
Some Indiana University-Bloomington and Purdue University students are among thousands of students participating across the country.
In March, Barnes and Noble invested in the fast-growing company.
Flashnotes.com officials say it’s another way to share original notes by students taken in class, essentially a “student to student” marketplace. Students set a price to sell their notes and earn 70 percent of those sales.
They say it was started by a student at Kent State University who found he was able to grasp concepts a bit better than other kids, and instead of just sharing his notes, he decided to sell them.
“We’re here to complement and reinforce what happens in class. You can’t skip class and get the notes, and learn all you need to learn. This is about getting extra help,” said Kate Adams, VP of product and brand marketing with Flashnotes.com.
Toby Friedman uses the service at Ohio State University to sell her notes.
“All the notes I take in my own words, it’s my own hard work. I upload it to the site, and see what other people are doing, and find out if there are any gaps between what you know, and what other people know,” said Friedman.
Other note-sharing or selling websites have brought up copyright infringement issues, if material is uploaded that was presented by the instructor that matches the wording of the instructor’s own class materials, said several experts.
“Flashnotes’ website describes a number of steps it is taking to try to avoid copyright problems, including daily reviews of posted material to catch copyright issues and warning students that repeat offenses may result in Flashnotes contacting their schools’ academic integrity offices. The question, of course, is always how much students comply with (or even know of) the policies and how much the site and instructors enforce them,” added IU professor Beth Cate, who specializes in intellectual property law, data privacy and security, research regulation and constitutional law.
Written in Purdue’s student conduct policy, it addresses copyright law, saying students are prohibited from selling notes without written permission from their instructor.
An entire section on Flashnotes.com’s website addresses copyright, saying they’re constantly surveying the study material to make sure it’s not in violation of copyright laws. They say they want note-takers to upload and sell only their original content.