Emily Sawtell
Director, New Business Ventures
McGraw-Hill
An Australian by birth who commutes between New York and London, Ms. Sawtell is hard at work enhancing the college experience with a multi-dimensional social network application.
Who invented GradeGuru.com and when?
A McGraw-Hill team produced initial research, and I pitched the startup in 2007 to senior management at McGraw-Hill Education. By 2008, we were in beta in the UK. Later that year we launched the site in the U.S. Very shortly thereafter Mashable named GradeGuru as a "stroke of genius" application.
Who are your members?
They are students at two-year, four-year and graduate schools in the U.S. and U.K. They attend more than 300 schools in the U.S. and 200 in the U.K. Their majors run the gamut. More than half of them are female. We expect the site to be heavily used by students in all age categories.
What do they like about GradeGuru?
Among themselves they like to share study methods and materials. Because they are familiar with other social networking sites, they especially appreciate the intuitiveness of GradeGuru. Because they know their class notes will be viewed by their peers, they achieve a level of skill and pride in preparing and displaying them. The included peer review process provides an opportunity for a student user to rise to the level of guru. Actually, it's quite a fully-adapted social media model. I'm pleased that it's a higher education app.
What in particular do adult students like about GradeGuru?
The return to school after a considerable absence is daunting. GradeGuru gives adult learners confidence and a sense for how to succeed in school by seeing how other students do it. Since most adult students are not residing on college campuses or in dorms, GradeGuru gives them access to a peer support network they come to value highly.
If it would have been available, how might GradeGuru have enhanced your experience at Harvard Business School?
Famous for the case-study method, Harvard knows students learn best by debating and discussing real-world business issues - very collaborative. Yet, Harvard is very much bricks and mortar, and a student will collaborate with just 89 others. GradeGuru's much larger audience would have enhanced that manyfold. And GradeGuru's 'crowd-sourcing' enables them to rate material and push the best to the top.
Explain the Twitter connection.
Twitter is how many of our members choose to get our news. Our members also tweet their followers that their notes are available on GradeGuru. I've enjoyed Twitter's ability to create an audience. I've been pleasantly surprised more than once to learn how broad and deep the knowledge of GradGuru has quickly become.
How might GradeGuru benefit a college?
It provides a ready ability to build community and camaraderie among classmates. Commuter schools, community colleges and online schools benefit greatly when they provide such. Also, any college or university can use GradeGuru to help students improve their study habits, and thus improve student performance without taxing faculty.
What do you expect will be its impact on retention?
We have begun research. Stay tuned.
Do you see a killer app on the horizon?
Many of the magic apps of the future will be driven by two success factors. Do they serve students well? Do the apps themselves inter-operate well?