Website To Revolutionize Teaching

A new online start-up aims to change the way classes are taught.

Coursekit, launched on Tuesday as a free download, is an online course management website that aims to combine the functions of a course site with the interaction of a social networking site.

The site­—founded by three students at the University of Pennsylvania—has features similar to most course websites: a syllabus, a schedule, and online documents. But it is easier to use, according to William N. Forster ’13, an on-campus representative of the site.

”It takes a liability that you had to deal with and makes it something positive, both from the professor’s side and from the student’s side,” Forster said.

Forster, along with Colm Dubhrosa ’13 and Kate A. Abraham ’14, is a campus founder, a student recruited to introduce the site on college campuses.

Accompanying the traditional course website components are elements resembling Facebook: a stream similar to a newsfeed where students and teachers can post information related to the class, in addition to profiles for each class participant.

But rather than recollecting Friday night’s antics, students and teachers on Coursekit can discuss topics related to their course and post relevant links to enhance the learning experience.

This turns the class into a continuous experience, rather than a biweekly occurrence, according to Coursekit co-founder and CEO Joseph Cohen.

Proponents of the website say students and professors alike have been critical of existing course websites.

“A lot of professors we have talked to say iSites is very difficult to use from the professor side,” Forster said. “Coursekit is a much nicer design and is much more convenient than iSites.”

Several Harvard professors are currently using the site, and more will try it next semester. After that, Harvard’s campus founders say they will work with the administration to expand the use of Coursekit on campus.

Despite possibly coordinating with the administration, Cohen says Coursekit does not aim for institutional sales and instead focuses on individual instructors who can tailor the site for their own use.

The site has already been piloted at 30 universities nationwide and the company hopes to extend to more in the future.

Said Cohen, “We’ve seen people make friends, we’ve seen them get to know each other, we’ve seen people learn things that they never would have without Coursekit and that to us is what it’s about.”