Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Martin Wood Four new websites, CampusBuddy, Powerset, RentSelect.com and Wiggio, target students by offering them services that let them rate professors, find a roommate that attends the same school, work in groups and help with research projects . [Click to enlarge]

If students were to ask their parents how they set up study groups and club meetings when they were in college, the answer might be very different from what college students do today. Information was not just a click away.

Gone are the days of making phone calls from a payphone or study hall to get everyone together. No more hours in the library doing research. There was no Craigslist or MySpace, which both are popular online sites students use today.

Recently, several new online programs aimed at assisting students were launched. Their uses vary from assistance in finding housing to setting up meetings and having conference calls. There are sites to assist in faster research and sites to find out if a particular professor grades easy or hard.

If a student is looking for a roommate, RentSelect.com is an online service providing information on roommates and housing. Wiggio provides a service for students belonging to several organizations and need a tool to set up meetings and keep track of member information. CampusBuddy has a program to rate college professors. Powerset is a research tool developed to make research faster and more efficient.

For students that need to find an apartment or someone to share the rent, Kaci Kiser, spokesperson for RentSelect.com, said the company launched its beta program on Sept. 24.

Kiser said RentSelect.com is a free service and provides information for students looking for roommates, apartments near the campus or searching for a room to rent.

Kiser explained everything is done through an e-mail account given to the student so the student can feel comfortable and safe contacting possible roommates without revealing a phone number or personal e-mail address.

Randy Schell, founder of RentSelect.com, said his goal was to be the only site that had a free roommate section. He said many roommate sites charge up to $30 per month.

"We wanted to give this service away to allow people to find their next living partner, without feeling the pressure of rushing it because their credit card is about to be charged again the next month," Schell said.

Chelsea Bingham, junior finance major, said she was not familiar with RentSelect.com, but she would consider trying out some of its services if she knew more about the site. (Important how?)

Bingham stressed she is more comfortable knowing a roommate she is going to share rent with than with someone she does not know. She knew her current roommate before they moved in together.

Another online service available for students provides assistance in setting up meetings and conference calls. Sometimes students belong to many different organizations and need a tool that keeps track of study groups and meeting times.

Wiggio was publicly launched in September. This site provides a single platform to provide free conference calling and data storage for student organizations.

Dana Lampert and Lance Polivy came up with the idea of Wiggio while they were still in college.

"The goal of Wiggio is to be able to have just one platform that is simple to use and has all the features a student needs for various projects and clubs," Lampert said.

Lampert says the Wig in Wiggio stands for "Working In Groups," which is what this online service is about.

Lampert said they began testing Wiggio at Cornell University last April and received feedback from many students making suggestions for improvement and stating positive comments on its usefulness.

After the public launching of the site in September, Lampert said there are now more than 15 schools and approximately 10,500 students using it.

"Wiggio is an all-in-one dashboard that can be integrated with cell phones and set up to use with text messaging," Lampert said.

"Eventually we plan on adding job postings to the site," Lampert said.

Another concern of some students is what their professors are like. Before they take a class from a particular professor, students often want to know what grading system the professor uses and information about his or her teaching style.

CampusBuddy was launched in February exclusively for students at California colleges. The purpose of this site is to rate professors.

CampusBuddy went national last week and creator Mike Moradian said it went from zero to 12,000 users in one week.

Moradian graduated from UCLA in 2007 with a degree in economics. He said at the time he could not find information on the professors at his school. He wanted to know if their teaching style was good or bad, how they conduct their classes, and whether or not they graded hard or easy.

"I wanted to help students become more in control of their academic decisions and core selections," Moradian said.

He calls CampusBuddy a way of streamlining education - something he believes is needed.

Alex Conley, senior finance major, said that while he had not heard of CampusBuddy, he has used RateMyProfessor.com and thinks it is a biased site that students use to post personal feelings, not facts. He is not sure he would take the time to look into CampusBuddy.

"If these new sources linked to Facebook, I might check them out," Conley said.

For students that have a lot of research to do, Powerset provides a way to search and read Wikipedia on the Web. Powerset finds information about topics and uses a navigational pane on Wikipedia pages.

Marie Williams of Powerset said the company's goal is to improve the ability of students to find information they need quickly and easily.

Steffi Broski, junior journalism major, said she would like to know more about the Powerset and its ability to search Wikipedia for students.

"If a professor or friend recommended any of these programs, I would check it out," Broski said.

Barbara O'Connor, communications studies professor, said she thinks MySacState works well for setting up student meetings and sending messages. She is not sure how many students would be willing to try out these new online services.

She thinks using Craigslist and the housing information found on MySacState works well for finding housing. There is a section on the university residence hall page entitled Off Campus Living that lists rentals nearby for students.

O'Connor feels students are already overwhelmed with the amount of information they receive via text messaging, cell phones, instant messaging and Facebook.

"There is not a lot of time for students to learn something new, and I don't see students wanting to learn how to use and navigate one more thing," O'Connor said.

Tim Ramirez, senior marketing major, said he does not have a need to try out new online services. He said he already uses MySpace and Facebook, and feels they meet his needs.

Seth Meszaros, freshman computer science major, said he thinks online tools are vital to education in the 21st century.

"If technology is advancing, then students need to advance too," Meszaros said.

Sally King can be reached at sking@statehornet.com

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