Website allows students to share, view class notes

A new website called isleptthroughclass.com allows college students nation-wide to post class notes online and receive gift cards as a reward.

Students can view submissions for free.

Created by Ryan Sapp, a University of Dayton student; isleptthroughclass.com launched in September 2007.

Over 400 colleges and universities across the country use more than 20,000 notes stored in the website's databases, according to the website.

With more than 12,000 members, more people sign up every day.

Despite starting near Wright State University, many students and faculty on campus haven't heard of it.

Henry Ruminski, a professor in the communication department, hasn't seen or heard of the website.

"I have no objections to students sharing notes," said Ruminski, "You have no indication of the quality of the notes. I would be reluctant to trust notes found there."

Ruminski was concerned with students posting copyrighted material.

The website uses Digital Millennium Copyright Act to protect the website from copyright infringement.

Doug Petkie, of the physics department, posts power points and lectures on WebCT, WSU's online program designed for professors to post classroom notes and material.

He said he probably wouldn't know if students were putting his class notes on isleptthroughclass.com and there probably wouldn't be much he could do if they did.

"I don't consider it a form of cheating, but the classroom experience is something that would be hard to reproduce through online notes," said Petkie. "(Class) should be a collaborative effort with others."

In Petkie's classes, students use clickers to answer questions during class, then see the correct answers and talk about the solutions.

"You can't replace what you get in class. There are tangents that add to the discussion. A storyline is created," he said. The side-topics teachers often take during class add to the material, but cannot be found in the notes, he said. Spanish professor Nancy Broughton thought the site might encourage students to skip.

"Spanish is interactive, so if you miss class, you miss the purpose," she said.

Broughton said that the site could be considered a form of cheating.

"Students aren't providing their own thoughts," she said. "Class isn't memorizing and regurgitating; it takes critical thinking and work."

"What if I actually did miss class because I was sick?" said senior Sunshine Mays, a chemistry major. "I'd want there to be a place where I could get those notes."

She would use the site if it had notes from classes that she'd missed.

"I have heard of isleptthroughclass.com, although I have never used it," said senior Megan Bruce, a communication studies major.

"It's not fair to people who actually went to class, but they're getting a reward through gift cards, so it evens out," Bruce said. "I don't see it as a form of cheating."