It is well known that college students are financially broke. Tutoring, depending on compensation factors, has served as one way for students to make money while helping other students to achieve higher academic outcomes. If you are an excellent note taker, there may now be another way to make extra money while helping others achieve academically-allow me to explain.

Internet services such as sharenotes.com are essentially online service providers that allow the uploading, downloading, buying and selling of class notes. The attraction is that students who use produce course notes can receive compensation for these notes via commission. Notewagon.com was launched in Boston in February and according to a March 2 2011 publication by the Boston Metro, UMass Boston is in line to participate in early March. Sharenotes.com is not yet affiliated with UMB but an incentive exists for the first student who adds this university to the site. A typical compensation is as follows. Notewagon awards tokens whenever someone purchases a document: 25 tokens for lecture notes and 100 tokens for study guides. 200 tokens equates to $8.99 in compensation, 400 tokens equals $15.99 and so on. All posted documents possess quality ratings to ensure value and refunds are not issued for any dissatisfaction or poor test outcomes but a free limited preview of the notes is allowed.

My opinion is that this service may prove helpful for the student who misses an occasional class for valid reasons. My concern is that this service can provide an avenue for some students to simply justify not coming to class on a regular basis. All said, the best way to obtain good grades is by actually coming to class, taking good notes, asking questions, studying hard and persevering through challenges. Technology will continue to devise shortcuts to these ends but as Chuck D said during his recent visit to UMB, and I am paraphrasing for political correctness: “there is nothing more ridiculous than a less intelligent person who uses a smart phone“.  On that note, pardon the pun; let us ensure that we are not counting on other students to ensure our academic success.