A new website allowing students to share notes, rate their professors and buy and sell textbooks has been created by an Oakland University student.

Fourpt (pronounced “four point”) was created by David Jakowenko, a senior majoring in biology. The idea is to create a platform where OU students could share their notes.

The site is a credit-based system under which students gain access to notes by contributing to the community.

“Users of Fourpt earn credits by contributing to the different areas of the website,” he said. “These areas include uploading notes, rating professors, posting to the marketplace and referring friends. Completing any of these tasks earns you credits which can then be used to download notes.”

Although other sites exist for getting notes and evaluating professors, Jakowenko felt that they weren’t a good fit for OU’s population.

He visualizes that Fourpt will end the need to visit multiple sites, to get educational information and condense it making it simpler for students.

“I wanted a one stop shop for students rather than having them go to a website for notes, a different website for professor reviews and another to sell their textbooks,” he said. “Why not just combine all of those features into one?”

Melissa Brode, a senior majoring in marketing and registered user on Fourpt, was intrigued by the communal aspect of the site.

“I love the idea of college students being able to post notes and resources to help out their classmates,” she said. “I like how you can upload your specific class schedule and relevant information can be brought directly to you.”

Fourpt’s marketplace allows sell their used textbooks.

“The marketplace is essentially a way to make that first email exchange,” Jakowenko said. “It’s then up to the students to arrange a meeting to sell their books.”

In addition to the textbook marketplace, he said Fourpt will soon feature apartment listings. Other planned features include e-mail notifications for courses users take and optimization of the website for mobile phones.

The site, put up the first week of December, has around 200 members, according to Jakowenko.  It is only open to OU and is still in beta testing.  There are no plans to expand to other campuses at this time.

For more information, students can visit the site at www.fourpt.com

 

Contact staff reporter Kevin Graham via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @KevinGraham88.