{"62909":{"#nid":"62909","#data":{"type":"news","title":"OpenStudy Aims to Create Worldwide Study Group","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThink about online courses. They\u2019re great, right? You take a\nprofessor who\u2019s interested in teaching a certain topic, say computer science,\nand hook him or her up with hundreds or thousands of students across the globe\nwho want to learn.\u0026nbsp; Add some\npodcasting technology and you\u2019ve got an online class where people from all\nwalks of life can learn about computer science. Except there\u2019s one problem.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat happens when the students need help? Who can they turn\nto?\u201d said Ashwin Ram, associate professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s College of\nComputing.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ESo, Ram teamed up with his wife, Preetha Ram, associate dean\nfor pre-health and science education at Emory University; Chris Sprague, a Georgia\nTech alumnus; and entrepreneur Phil Hill in 2007 to create OpenStudy, an online\nsystem that links students with other students from around the world in real\ntime, so they can get help at any time, day or night. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe want to make the entire world your study group,\u201d said\nRam.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EOpenStudy debuted this August and already has more than 11,00\nusers from 151 countries, with a particularly large presence in the U.S., China,\nIndia and Brazil.\u0026nbsp; Using OpenStudy\nis free. All a user has to do is sign up and connect with a study group that\ncovers their topics of interest.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EBut why would people bother answering others\u2019 questions?\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve found that people get significant gratification from\nhelping people right now,\u201d said Hill. \u201cConnecting, conversing and helping a\nstranger in need provides a unique feeling and actually helps the learner to\nbetter understand the material herself.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve seen some fantastic examples of students, worldwide,\nconnecting and helping each other, such as a student from Los Angeles being\nhelped with chemistry by a student from Istanbul, Turkey,\u201d added Ram.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ECurrently about 90 percent of the questions posed on\nOpenStudy are answered, and each question asked receives input from an average\nof 4.5 other students. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EEach user has a profile page that shows how many questions\neach one has asked and answered as well as how helpful their answers have been.\nA few weeks ago, OpenStudy added a feature that allows people to rate the\nquality of the answers they\u2019ve been given. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve found that this feature helps to motivate our users. Strong\npeer recognition is really important to people who provide help,\u201d said Hill.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EOpenStudy has more than 350 study groups that users can\njoin, such as AP History, Natural Language@Georgia Tech or Emory Biology. To\njoin a course, just use the search function to find a topic of interest. The\nsite has also teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s\nOpenCourseWare, the world\u2019s largest provider of free educational classes.\nStudents taking one of their courses can join one of 10 official MIT study\ngroups on the MIT website. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe will continue \u0026nbsp;to extend\nthe reach of OpenStudy so that study help is within reach of every student in\nthe world regardless of location, social background or the time of day,\u201d said\nHill.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EOpenStudy is a\nfor-profit spinoff that was started in Georgia Tech\u2019s Advanced Technology\nDevelopment Center and is funded by the \u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003ENational Science\nFoundation\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E, the \u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.ncrr.nih.gov\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003ENational Institutes of Health\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E and the \u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gra.org\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EGeorgia Research\nAlliance\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOpenStudy debuted this August and already has more than 11,000\nusers from 151 countries, with a particularly large presence in the U.S., China,\nIndia and Brazil. All a user has to do is sign up and connect with a study group that\ncovers their topics of interest. \u003Cem\u003ESource: GT Communications \u0026amp; Marketing\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Web site hooks up students from all across the globe, enabling them to get help at any time."}],"uid":"27154","created_gmt":"2010-11-22 15:31:36","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:07:50","author":"Louise Russo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2010-11-17T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2010-11-17T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"62805":{"id":"62805","type":"image","title":"OpenStudy\u0027s Founders","body":null,"created":"1449176394","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:59:54","changed":"1475894547","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:27","alt":"OpenStudy\u0027s Founders","file":{"fid":"191673","name":"11P1000-P11-025.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/11P1000-P11-025_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/11P1000-P11-025_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2425247,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/11P1000-P11-025_0.jpg?itok=ec1liNSk"}}},"media_ids":["62805"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"11281","name":"ashwin"},{"id":"1432","name":"education"},{"id":"11113","name":"OpenStudy"},{"id":"11282","name":"ram"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}