Many college students have probably sat through a lecture with heavy eyelids and drool seeping from their mouths.
And for others, worse than the embarrassment of having crusted spit on their chin is missing the exact reason they went to class: the notes.
Enter Isleptthroughclass.com.
The Web site, developed by University of Dayton sophomore Ryan Sapp, is a completely free "notes networking" site that enables students to upload their own notes, as well as download those taken by classmates from classes they may have missed.
Since its debut in September 2007, Sapp said the site has grown exponentially.
"We've spread to 11 schools now," Sapp said. "(At Dayton) we have a little over 500 students signed up and about 330 sets of notes, so it's going pretty well. There are just more and more notes uploaded every day."
As of Wednesday, there were 28 University of Nebraska-Lincoln students registered on the site. That's a number Leah Luebbe would like to increase.
Luebbe, a senior marketing major at UNL and the Isleptthroughclass.com campus representative, plans to promote at Student Union, distribute flyers and tell people about it.
An attractive feature to prospective members is the $10 gift card students earn from Amazon.com after uploading 10 notes in a week.
Ben Schiltz, a freshman grassland ecology and management major at UNL, joined the site for the gift certificates.
Although Schiltz was unaware his notes had to be evaluated before he received the reward, it has been a source of motivation.
"I didn't know people had to read my notes to get (gift certificates), but it's an incentive to take good notes," Schiltz said. "In high school, I was pretty bad about it."
Initially, Sapp said his professors were weary about the site encouraging students to skip class or that exams might be posted. But after he explained the site was intended only to be a supplement for notes and that tests cannot be uploaded, the professors embraced the concept.
"A few professors hadn't liked the idea, but once I talked to them they realized it's not cheating," Sapp said.
Jennifer Garza is UNL's visiting associate professor of history and Schiltz's instructor for History 262, a class for which Schiltz uploaded notes. Garza believes the site can serve a positive purpose, as long as it's used in the correct manner.
"I don't really have a problem with it," Garza said. "My only concern would be that students would use it as a substitute to coming to class. But I think it could be very helpful. But like with anything, use it with caution."
Sapp is prepared to deal with issues raised by skeptical professors and plans to continue marketing the Web site to universities across the nation, regardless of its initial criticism. He also plans to expand and improve the site itself.
"We'll keep changing it," he said. "We're still young, and we know we can always make things better."
teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com
