Need info about schools that have a SDN-like site

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To anybody out there:

Down here at Nova, we are thinking about putting together a vbulliten (SDN) web portal for students. I would like input from anybody around the country who has done this and how it has affected students and communication. We (student government) are tossing the idea around but need to know what are some of the potential pitfalls.

Pros:
- Communication
- Sharing information
- Sharing old exams

Cons:
- Administration?
- Copyright laws regarding old exams?
- Nobody will use it?

The idea was brought up at a government meeting and the only thing holding us back was administration coming down on students for posting files like this. The only other option would be to independently-fund the site to take the administration out of the loop. We are, for comparison, currently using yahoo groups to communicate amongst our classes. Any input?

-Mike

Originally Posted by mike3kgt

To anybody out there:

Down here at Nova, we are thinking about putting together a vbulliten (SDN) web portal for students. I would like input from anybody around the country who has done this and how it has affected students and communication. We (student government) are tossing the idea around but need to know what are some of the potential pitfalls.

Pros:
- Communication
- Sharing information
- Sharing old exams

Cons:
- Administration?
- Copyright laws regarding old exams?
- Nobody will use it?

The idea was brought up at a government meeting and the only thing holding us back was administration coming down on students for posting files like this. The only other option would be to independently-fund the site to take the administration out of the loop. We are, for comparison, currently using yahoo groups to communicate amongst our classes. Any input?

-Mike

We had a class forum before we started this year set up by a student in our class for people to coordinate housing, meetings, classes, etc... but it sort of died once we came to school and could communicate in person and through the class email address. You might establish a class email list for "students only." Here at Michigan possessing old exams has become an honor code violation and test packs / old exams are no longer allowed to be in circulation.

Penn has a couple of such forums: one was set up by the class of 2007 and another one was designed in around our biochemistry course. For a while the former site was used (albeit not much as the last post is dated about two years ago) while the later never really got off the ground. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but I think that such sites have good intentions but their practicality is often questionable: my class is connected to everyone else via email (or in my case that and AIM) and I see my professors more than I sometimes care to so the infrastructure that is already in place is sufficient. That's my perspective of where I'm at - Nova might be much different than Penn in those regards. If you school does get the site running I wish you the best of luck with it!

Here is my take - the class below us had someone set up a site with vbulletin and just pays the monthly fee himself, and pays for the server too. (Or uses his own computer ... I don't know.) Anyway, he says it has worked out awesome and helps to not clog their email accounts. If I had to do it over again, it would be worth it to have for four years. Of course, I understand that you don't want to pay for it all yourself. Maybe you could take donations for some of it. I would not recommend setting it up through the school - although this takes away potential funding. You DON'T want to deal with all of that administrative stuff. And the school will also be able to look at things at will, and you just don't want to go there. So, I wish I knew how to do it, but I think it will be worth it if you do it right. (Use vbulletin with bells and whistles and have a forum similar to SDN.) Good luck.