This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project seeks to create the first on-line social studying platform that allows students to connect, share and learn together. The application is focused on high school and college students. The proposed platform, called OpenStudy, combines both theory and practice in a seamless user-friendly environment that empowers the individual user to learn, create and share their knowledge. OpenStudy will make education accessible, by connecting students of varying levels of expertise, age, location, and social graph; and fun, by providing a social learning experience with peer-to-peer sharing and validation.
In the face of globalization and Thomas Friedman's 'flat earth' economy, competing through education is a fundamental need whose importance is being recognized at a national level. Students and educators alike recognize the need for innovative technologies in addressing this problem. Yet according to leading market analysts, the e-learning supply chain is rooted in old business practices and unable to meet the needs of the new buyers. 'The State of Our Nation's Youth' survey reports that high school students feel the pressure to compete with better grades. Despite the rapid adoption of learning management systems by institutions and of social networks by individual students, there is no systematic solution to this problem nor an application in the education field. Significant technical and business innovation is required to introduce a solution to this problem. The OpenStudy platform seeks to accomplish this change by creating a peer-to-peer learning community to provide a social learning experience for its members. Leveraging the wisdom of a community, OpenStudy will enable students, faculty and alumni to engage in a national conversation focused on learning.
A Social Marketplace for E-learning With NSF funding, we have created OpenStudy, an innovative platform for e-learning. OpenStudy connects learners worldwide with peers who are willing to give help in science and math. The site is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to learn. Harnessing the collaborative powers of the Internet, OpenStudy allows students to give and receive homework help from other members. Participation isn't limited to students, though - this site works like a social network in which anyone can participate. There are seven main topic based study groups in which you can interact with others, asking, answering or browsing questions and topics. Each study group tells you how many students are online in that area, and you can see questions being answered in real time. This is a highly interactive community, with users working on questions, chatting together in the group chat and getting help with everything from math equations to grammar questions. Since its creation, OpenStudy has partnered with educational institutions like MIT and Yale, that offer high quality online free educational resources and other open educational resource providers where students frequent. It has also received several awards, Tech Crunch named it one of the most innovative educational companies of the year, Education Portal selected it as the most Student Friendly Open CourseWare site award through user votes. Intellectual Merit We have created the first social studying platform that allows students to connect, share and learn together. The application is focused on high school and college students. OpenStudy combines both theory and practice in a seamless user-friendly environment that empowers the individual user to learn, create and share their knowledge. OpenStudy makes education (i) accessible, by connecting students of varying levels of expertise, age, location, and social graph, and (ii) fun, by providing a social learning experience with peer-to-peer sharing and validation. Broader Impact In the face of globalization and Thomas Friedman’s "flat earth" economy, competing through education is a fundamental need whose importance is being recognized at a national level. Students and educators alike recognize the need for innovative technologies in addressing this problem. Yet according to leading market analysts, the e-learning supply chain is rooted in old business practices and unable to meet the needs of the new buyers. "The State of Our Nation’s Youth" survey reports that high school students feel the pressure to compete with better grades. Despite the rapid adoption of learning management systems by institutions and of social networks by individual students, there is no systematic solution to this problem nor an application in the education field. Significant technical and business innovation is required to introduce a solution to this problem. OpenStudy, has led the change by creating a peer-to-peer learning community that provides a social learning experience to its members. Leveraging the wisdom of crowds, OpenStudy enables students, faculty and alumni to engage in a national conversation focused on learning. Research performed during this project has contributed to a deeper understanding of the e-learning and education fields and resulting in a high growth business with economic benefit.
