Have you ever wondered if there were other options out there besides Google Drive and Dropbox for student projects? Well, Ottawa University student, Bassil Eid, may have the solution for you.
Cooplearn.com is a website for students that offers innovative ways to collaborate as a group to study a certain subject. It was designed to improve students’ grades and study techniques, and also offers online social interactions with other students.
The site was founded by Eid, who is studying economics at the University of Ottawa, and Robin Defaye, in collaboration with graphic designer Ryan Sheppard.
Although Cooplearn.com has been running for less than a year, it’s membership is already growing at a steady rate, and it is improving its services to students and expanding its market.
Eid stated that through feedback from Cooplearn’s student users, they are constantly able to innovate ways to make their services more user friendly and efficient in order to help students to achieve their academic goals.
Some of the more significant changes made to the website include those pertaining to the aesthetic quality of the site, with improved navigation and user friendliness. Students also asked to have improved functionality, making it easier to share notes, textbooks and questions in a more creative way, explained Eid.
“We are of course constantly working on functionality. We improved inbox messaging by allowing for a quicker searching for scholars. We also updated our textbooks section in the Studyrooms to allow users to fill in more information regarding a specific textbooks making it easier/cheaper for other students to find. We are also working on adding in a chat.”
The site offers a more organized method of sharing than other online services, such as Google Drive, because the collection of documents uploaded to Cooplearn directly relates to the chosen course or “Studyroom.” This allows students to more efficiently share assignments, exams, notes and add textbooks. For example, on the site, there are specific sections designated solely for assignments and exams where students can “post comments, answers and questions on the spot.”
According to Eid, users in programs such as English, psychology and history use the site the most. “They use [the site] to collaborate and discuss their assignments weekly. We are however seeing a surge of Econ and Math students registering and we expect them to be about 50/50 with the other programs by the semester’s end.”
The site is available in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Switzerland and Denmark. Eid stated that the site is limited to certain countries and markets “in order not to get overwhelmed with feedback and ensure that we create a more user impactful product for our students.”
The site does not use any form of advertising for revenue purposes and Eid says that he will refrain from using it and if in the instance of the necessity of advertising it would be presented so as to not interfere with the user’s experience.
The site has relied solely on word of mouth from student to student for overall recognition of the website and Eid says that this form of marketing generates more than enough registered users and “has turned out to be the biggest promotional technique.”
Since the site is still in its beta form there are a lot more improvements to be made. Eid plans to continue working with students in finding out which changes to the site can be made in order to improve functionality and creativity.
Check it out at Cooplearn.com
With Files from Tim Weynerowski
