Website allows students to buy and sell lecture notes

With the increased popularity of podcasts, PowerPoint and notes posted online documenting class discussions, students have more ways than ever before to get information from classes without ever stepping into a lecture hall. But while posts on Blackboard and podcasts have come at no cost to students, the site Sharenotes.com and other websites bring money into the mix.

Many professors at NYU already use the Internet to provide students with lecture notes on Blackboard. CAS English professor Ernest Gilman said having notes readily available is helpful to many students.

"They get a preview, and a review of the lecture," Gilman said. "Some even print it out and take class notes on it."

But Sharenotes.com allows students from colleges and universities to sell and trade their own lecture notes online. Students sign up for free and enter their school and major. They then have the option to purchase or submit notes. Users can set a price or post them for free.

Gilman fears sites such as Sharenotes.com will discourage students from attending classes.

"There is the danger that this website will work in some sense like Sparknotes," he said. "A student who avoids reading the books by reading the Sparknote summary [may] avoid attending class as well, because the class notes will be readily available."

CAS junior Marlene Bonnelly created an account on the site.

"I wanted a way to sell my notes without actually exchanging cash in class," Bonnelly said. "I thought it made sense to sell them, rather than give away my hard work for nothing."

Some students questioned the effectiveness of Sharenotes.com and other note-sharing websites.

"Notes are usually exclusive to the person who wrote them, especially since some people write in shorthand only they can understand," LSP freshman Michael Walsh said. "So personally, I would not use the site."

Charlotte Evans is a staff writer and Briannon Gillis is a contributing writer.