It used to be that if you skipped class or zoned out in the middle of a professor's lecture, you had to rely on the generosity of classmates to fill the holes in your notebook.
Today's students have more options. In the last year, a handful of websites have popped up offering free class notes, chat rooms and other resources for colleges nationwide. At some schools, the big players are Study24-7.com and StudentU.com. At Stanford, Versity.com has established a major presence. The Menlo Park-based company employs more than 20 student note-takers covering 20 Stanford classes. It is competing with established campus services like Lecture Notes, a business run through the Associated Students of Stanford University. A quarter's worth of ASSU Lecture Notes costs $25 per class. During fall 1999, the ASSU offered materials for 14 classes.
Versity.com has set up shop at most of the 90 biggest schools in the country, says Janet Cardinell, the start-up's director of campus relations. They pay students $8 to $12 per lecture and train them to take concise, accurate notes.
Some professors are uneasy about having notes from their lectures posted online. Chemistry professor Steven Boxer says he wonders who will ensure that the notes are accurate. Versity.com hopes to win faculty over by allowing them to amend or supplement the notes for their classes, Cardinell says.
Professor Stephen Krasner, whose international politics class has been covered by Versity.com, is less concerned. "Since I have always allowed ASSI to make class notes, I do not see that having these on the web would make any additional difference regarding student apathy or class participation," Krasner says.
Tara Hale, a senior human biology major, who purchased Lecture Notes for chemistry classes when she was a freshman and sophomore, says she thinks students will embrace the wider variety of choices now available. "Sometimes at the end of a quarter, I go through and realize I missed this and this and this," Hale says. "It would be great to go back and get those I missed -- especially if it were free."
