NoteUtopia is an application designed to assist students in sharing notes for specific classes at specific schools. Friends generally share notes and collaborate. To make this collaboration easier and more effective, NoteUtopia allows students to upload notes and other study materials to be used by others. In addition, students can sell their notes, study guides, or outlines for fees.

Visit www.noteutopia.com

NoteUtopia launched in 2010 and was created by Ryan Stevens, a student at Sacramento State College.

Ideally, NoteUtopia would be a place for students to connect and share notes, chat, socialize, get help with assignments, find classmates, and more. Note that “sharing” indicates buying and selling here. The site is basically an educational social network.

The site is straightforward, but there is little to see as it is so new. It stresses that the site is not to be used as a substitute for class attendance or a way to cheat. The site owners hope that educators will use NoteUtopia for their own class notes to move classroom handouts towards technology as well as encourage homework help and interactions through the site.

Notes may be rated by buyers so that each upload has a rating for review. Both the seller and the notes are rated. Notes may be previewed prior to purchase as well.

At this point, the site is barely populated. While it is understandable that the student who created the site wants to make a profit, this seems to be the kind of site that would be best suited to file sharing rather than selling. NoteUtopia takes a fee, but the amount is not stated in the FAQ.

Sellers cannot withdraw funds until they amount to a minimum of $15 and they must have a PayPal account to send the funds to.

Users provide first and last names, email address, and choose if they wish to post notes anonymously. If so, they choose an alias. Users then choose a college from the drop down menu. If their college is not listed, a link allows the user to suggest the addition of their college.

There is no fee to register or to upload notes. Purchase prices of notes are determined by the seller and an undisclosed fee is taken by the site.

College students who wish to collaborate are more likely to use free collaboration tools and emails as well as their own college forums rather than a service like this. But the idea makes sense, and the site is well made.

• Free to register
• May upload notes, study guides, etc. to sell
• May purchase notes specific to school, class, and teacher
• Collaborative tools
• Social networking functions such as a wall, messages, and groups

Visit www.noteutopia.com

NoteUtopia video