Cooplearn, an academic social media page intended to facilitate study groups and other scholastic activity amongst students, is starting to catch on in the UCSB community.

The website, which launched in September, allows post-secondary students to create a free account, locate their school and create virtual “study rooms” with peers for note-sharing and tutoring. Cooplearn’s co-founder Bassil Eid said the site’s planning began in November 2012, when Eid and his friends noticed they completed assignments and studied for exams much more efficiently when they collaborated.

“We came up with the idea of Cooplearn when we and a few friends were sitting around thinking of how dependent we are on each other when it comes to completing assignments and studying for exams,” Eid said.

But this social dependency translated into higher quality classwork, according to Eid.

“Not only were we dependent, but we also performed much better when we communicated with our friends and classmates about studying for exams and completing assignments,” he said.

While originally created to benefit the Canadian university system, students in the U.S. are now beginning to jump on the Cooplearn bandwagon.

Within the first few weeks following its launch, Cooplearn had already totaled 800 users and currently, there are approximately 50 UCSB students taking advantage of the site.

Ruby Harris-Gavin, second-year zoology and anthropology double major, said the site is appealing for its social aspect.

“I’ve never heard of [Cooplearn], but it sounds cool because it’s something you do on your own time and you get help from other students,” Harris-Gavin said.

So far, those who are on Cooplearn like what they see, according to Eid, as student-users have been an active force in promoting the site.

“The public is really helping us get Cooplearn out there,” Eid said. “The cool thing is that the public understands that the more people on the website, the more heads there are to help find answers to tough school problems.”

Eid admits that Cooplearn is still a work in progress, and that the Cooplearn team is constantly asking for feedback from users.

“I still like to think we haven’t officially launched because we are constantly making more and more improvements on the website, as feedback pours in from our users and students,” Eid said.

 

 

 A version of this article appeared on page 5 of Thursday October 17th’s print edition of the Daily Nexus.

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