Although sharing class notes can be a beneficial option every once in a while, the best way to learn the material is by going to class.

NoteUtopia, founded by Sacramento State alumnus Ryan Stevens, has a sleek design and offers students an opportunity to share notes or anything else class related.

Once registered on the website, students can upload material for free, download what other students have submitted and socialize with classmates and professors in forums and chat rooms. Students can offer their notes for free or for a small price.

“We implemented a sort of eBay-type structure where students can charge other students for their notes,” Stevens said.

Being able to sell notes is a huge incentive to use the website, he said.

A potential pitfall with utilizing NoteUtopia is if students rely heavily on downloading lectures notes instead of coming to class, then they will likely do poorly on exams or quizzes.

Calvin Newport, author of “How to become a Straight-A student,” said getting notes online is an incorrect way of studying for a class.

“The bulk of the process of learning material can actually happen in lecture, as you try to parse the detailed explanations into the underlying big ideas,” Newport said.

He said getting notes from an online resource will not free students from having to go back and process the lecture material.

But ultimately, students will be the ones who decide whether this website is worth their time. NoteUtopia’s success depends on student participation.

Kyle Cunningham, who was a freshman criminal justice major at the time, created a Sac State forum, referred to as “CSUS forum,” for a class project in 2006. The forum has since faded off after failing to gain traction with students.

The forum was meant to connect students and help them find useful information about what is going on at Sac State.

Cunningham said one reason the website failed is because he never really advertised it due to lack of time.

Although Stevens is actively promoting NoteUtopia, will it suffer the same fate?

It is hard to tell just yet. The website simplifies the process of sharing class material, but students might not feel they need this service when alternative services exist.

SacCT, Sac State’s online course management system, already allows students to share material and message with their classmates. If students wanted to get notes from someone in their class, they could just message them onSacCT.

With NoteUtopia, there is no guarantee notes are available for each class you are taking. Also, the notes you download for a class might not always match up to the current lecture material.

Russell DiSilvestro, philosophy professor, said he changes lectures from semester to semester. If someone downloads notes from a previous semester, those notes will be useless.

“There’s only some benefit to the student in trying to share (notes) with others taking the class a different semester,” DiSilvestro said.

You might be able to gain a general understanding of what is going on in class at that point, but you really do need the current notes to get specifics.

Also, not all of the notes students take in classrooms are in digital form. A lot of students still take notes with a pen and paper.

In order to upload them, students would have to scan the notes onto their computer, which produces a bit of an inconvenience.

So, do you go to class and get your own notes, or do you go to NoteUtopia and hope that someone has uploaded them there?

Think about the learning experience you are losing. Nothing can replace just going to class and taking notes the hard way.

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