As a freshman at Lehigh University, Jason Rappaport quickly became frustrated with the logistics of completing group projects for his classes. College students often have conflicting schedules that make it difficult to find times when a group can meet. And it was hard to share electronic documents with classmates on a platform that fit students' needs.
As Rappaport worked toward his degree in industrial design, those frustrations evolved into a website called GoodSemester, where students and faculty can share notes, assignments and grades. Faculty can manage their courses on the platform. Professors and students can hold virtual discussions.
Before it was released to the public in mid-March, GoodSemester was tested by about 1,000 faculty and students at several colleges. Their suggestions were integrated into the new version. “Our goal was to build something that would be indispensable to your academic life,” says Rappaport, who expects to graduate this spring.
While some companies that make course-management tools market them to colleges so whole campuses can adopt them, GoodSemester plans to take the opposite approach. Its plan is to convince individual students and faculty to use the platform, then to have schools adopt it because so many people are already using it.
GoodSemester has a few new features planned. One would allow faculty to enable a tool that would show students how their grades compare with their classmates. This would be helpful for students in classes where grades are curved. “One of my biggest frustrations in college was not knowing what my grade was,” Rappaport says.
Source: Jason Rappaport, GoodSemester
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen