Want free class notes and old exams?
A new and free online student resource has arrived at Auburn University.
Aug. 25, 2009, koofers.com launched on every campus nationwide.
Based in Reston, Va., koofers.com got its start by uploading past course materials archived by fraternities and sororities at Virginia Tech (in fact, "koofers" is slang at the school for "old tests").
"Koofers.com is a 100 percent free platform for sharing academic knowledge," said Lee Bradshaw, lead marketing director of koofers.com. "We help students all across the nation study smarter by providing them with past study materials."
Koofers.com offers exams, quizzes, study guides, student- and instructor- provided class notes, grade distribution data and professor ratings.
All ratings of professors are written by students.
The site helps students choose the right classes and instructors and offers a schedule maker, class planning materials and a flashcard maker.
Koofers.com is free to both students and instructors.
However, the site does require a user to sign up for an account using a valid Tigermail account.
All information on koofers.com is provided through student and instructor accounts.
Since the Web site just launched at Auburn, there is little to no information for students.
"Our goal at koofers.com is to create an interactive community that serves the academic needs of users through information sharing," Bradshaw said.
The concept of koofers.com is based on leveling the playing field by providing users with access to materials that would otherwise only be available to select groups while facilitating instructor collaboration and awareness of the materials.
To help spread the word, koofers.com is hiring campus representatives.
The starting pay for representatives is $8 plus the potential for bonuses.
Applications for the Koofers campus representatives are available at www.koofers.com.
While koofers.com encourages professor participation on the site, even to go so far as to offer instructor accounts, most seem wary of the idea.
"As an instructor, I can't see myself using the Web site," said Dylan Sabo, a philosophy professor. "For one thing, I can provide all my course materials free of charge over Blackboard already, so I don't see what I would gain by using it."
He said the service asserts that it has the right to do essentially whatever it wants to with all content posted to the Web site, which would make him loathe to use it anyway.
"I have a hard time seeing it being a useful thing for me to use as a teaching tool," Sabo said.
Reagan Grimsley, associate professor of history, agreed, but for different reasons.
"I would not use the service," Grimsley said. "I see potential copyright issues. Some professors see their test as a work they created, so there could be some issues that arise."
Koofers addresses these issues in its terms of usage policy on the Web site.
According to the Web site, Koofers will remove any content from the Koofers Service if properly notified that such content infringes on another's intellectual property rights.
Overall, students seem excited and welcoming of the new site to Auburn.
"Once the system has been in usage for a while it could produce a wealth of information for students," said Jacob Nobles, a sophomore in political science. "It could save students money by getting free notes instead of buying U-Notes at $12 that are not that great."
The site cannot work without the participation of Auburn University, because all information will be generated by students and professors.
For those interested, check out www.koofers.com to sign up for an account.
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