Finding help from college classmates no longer requires a face-to-face meeting, thanks to StudyRoom, a startup that is taking study groups and tutoring services into the online space.
Education continues to evolve with technology, with many of today’s students preferring to connect through social media or other online mediums. With that in mind, the founders of StudyRoom built a platform that focused on allowing students to connect for collaboration and study aid.
Emerson Malca, co-founder and CEO of StudyRoom, told TechCrunch that the idea began when a friend reached out to him for help with homework. His friend only had two classmates’ phone numbers, making Malca realize how poor the communication options were for students, despite being part of such a well-connected generation.
Working like a social network, a school page covers news items about the university, like upcoming events or student inquires about specific classes or professors. On a page for a particular class, students can share notes, ask one another questions, build study groups and similar activities.
Though the portal is designed with students in mind, there have been some professors joining the site as well. Other professors are less than pleased with the site.
Malca explained that some professors wanted more control over the site and the ability to moderate the activity of students, but the co-founders wanted to keep the site student-focused.
With no moderation and notes available even from previous semesters, cheating is a worry of some professors.
Though students can flag one another for bad behavior, there is no other policing going on. Flagged posts can be removed if they are considered by the company to be “seriously cheating.”
In the interview with TechCrunch, Malca didn’t seem too worried about students cheating.
“Homework is just way for students to practice,” he said in the interview, later reiterating that the online group isn’t much different than an in-person one.
StudyRoom is currently available in 100 schools across the U.S. Their only current revenue source is peer mentoring, where the company gets a cut of the mentor’s $24 per hour pay.
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