A start-up that tried to make studying more social is pressing the stop button.
GradeGuru, the social-studying Web site run by McGraw-Hill Higher Education, has announced that it will close its doors on April 29.
The service, which was part of a group of Web sites putting a Facebook-like spin on studying, gave students small rewards for uploading their class notes. Users earned points for sharing popular notes and redeemed them for cash and gift cards.
“McGraw-Hill’s evolving social-media and education strategy is leaning in a new direction as we continue to revolutionize digital learning,” says a message on GradeGuru’s home page. The message directs visitors who want to continue to share their notes and connect with other students to Chegg’s Notehall and Unigo, a college-counseling network that counts McGraw-Hill among its investors.
Students who used the service still have time to download notes and redeem any remaining points, the message said.
In an Educause survey of 3,000 students published last fall, nearly a quarter of respondents reported using study networks like GradeGuru. Cornell University was the site‘s top network, with 859 members and nearly 4,000 notes submitted, according to the institution’s GradeGuru profile. The site claimed that it stored an archive of more than 50,000 study materials, though it was not clear how many students were using the site actively.
A representative for McGraw-Hill could not be reached for comment regarding GradeGuru’s closure.
[Creative Commons-licensed Flickr photo by Brady Withers]
