Take note

Services may encourage cutting class

If there's an easier way to do something, most people will take it. In the United States, the weight-loss industry makes billions of dollars a year on Americans who are willing to exchange their money for powders and potions that offer the promise of weight-loss without diet or exercise. Most people do not like hard work. Being a University student is also hard work: professors assign a ton of reading, another paper always seems to be due, attendance is taken at those pesky one-and-a-half hour, 9 a.m. classes. Several services have popped up to help make the learning process easier by providing students with notes from several University classes. The newest of these services, Versity.com, is the first service to not only offer notes online, but for free. Learning is a complex process, and education cannot be bought - it is earned.

Students, or their parents, fork over tens of thousands of dollars for a University education. But getting an education is not as simple as sending in tuition checks. It requires a lot of dedication, energy and discipline by students. Paying $25 for a semester's worth of notes, or looking up notes on the Web for free, encourages some students to use these services instead of attending lectures. The notes are not supplementary or extra information - they are exactly what a student would receive if they had gone to class themselves. While these note-taking services may have "helpful" intentions - or are just capitalizing on some students' laziness - students interested in using the services should proceed with caution.

For starters, there is no way to guarantee the information offered by these services is complete - or even accurate. Note-taking services are in no way monitored by professors; some professors have openly spoken out against them. Professors do not lecture simply to relay facts - they ideally give an engaging, thought-provoking presentation of ideas and facts. Another person's notes are simply no substitute for attending class. Using note-taking services, rather than attending lectures, compromises a student's education and academic integrity. Going to lecture is not just about getting the notes or finding out what is on the midterm. It is the only way to understand the anecdotes professors sprinkle in their lectures - and the only way to hear the ideas of other classmates.

Receiving a University education is multi-faceted - not only attending lectures, but developing personal, subjective note-taking skills, deciding what information is valuable and analyzing it. Analytical skills cannot be taught or bought, they are learned. Relying on note-taking services not only dramatically simplifies education, but denies students the larger base a college education can offer. While grades are important, they are only a small part of an academic experience and their importance is short-lived. A few years after graduation, many students find that prospective employers are not interested in their G.P.A. But the skills obtained by fully participating in one's own education are priceless.

02-11-99