Studeous: Free web service for teacher+studen collaboration

[mouser]

This looks very promising -- we might even consider using it for the Self-teaching Programming School here at DonationCoder.com

From the very nice review on makeuseof.com:

Studeous allows you to communicate, download, upload, discuss, and pretty much keep up with your coursework. As a teacher, you’ll be able to register, set up a class page, and get an “enroll” link that your students can use to sign up and register for the class. You then have a multitude of features at your disposal. You’ll be able keep track of all your students in a roster and easily update grades online. You can also update information regarding homework, events, tests, etc. and even create a drop box, which provides a place for students to upload assignments.

Another feature is a test generator, which has a simple interface to easily create practice tests online that can be graded automatically. Additionally, the service includes the ability for you to share files with your students. Audio files can be created into podcasts, which students can subscribe to via RSS or iTunes. In case you have to quickly send out a message to your students, Studeous lets you send them text messages, provided that they input their mobile numbers into their profiles.

As students you can check all the information provided by your instructor. A great implementation on this site is a discussion board, allowing you to talk about assignments, homework, etc, with fellow classmates and teachers. There’s even a live chat option, letting you communicate with users outside of class, and an effective messaging system that works much like email. You can also look up your grades online, create study groups and events, and access course listings.

Both teachers and students have personal pages that they see when they log in. This page serves as their primary “dashboard” from where they can harness Studeous’ services. The interface is clean and intuitive. There are also privacy options, allowing you to hide certain information from others accessing, such as your email address or phone number.

Academic institutions spend tens of thousands of dollars each year on services that Studeous does better, and for free. This means that schools with a limited budget can have access to this excellent and versatile service. Both teachers and students will enjoy Studeous to enrich their academic experience in an easy-to-use and integrated place.

http://www.studeous.com/

from www.makeusof.com

[Carol Haynes]

Looks really interesting if you want to set up web based courses.

The only thing I was wondering is how this is all being financed? There doesn't appear to be any advertising and they are allowing unlimited numbers of classrooms and unlimited storage space. That's going to cost a lot if it becomes popular.

[mouser]

Yes, that's my concern with all of these hosted solutions.. they start out free and without advertising, but you lock yourself in and put yourself at the mercy of unknown and uncontrollable changes.  and unless they get financing from educational grants (which they would in a more sensible world), they will have to pay for all this somehow.

[kartal]

How about self hosting? http://moodle.org/

[mediaguycouk]

Moodle is a pretty good way to throw up a course and have assignments. I currently look over www.languagehouse.soton.ac.uk for the university. They do pre-arrival language courses for non-english speaking students coming to Southampton.

Nice thing about moodle is you if you put up the courses people can self enrol onto all the courses and do the exercises and teachers should get notification of assignment handins. On the other hand, the nice thing about the programming schools here is that it is all self contained.

[steeladept]

Maybe I missed it, but this looks like the software the company produced to sell their services.  If you follow the links, they provide fully hosted services for "schools" that don't have the expertise to become online schools.  If this is just their way of getting teachers to try it and pitch it to the school they are teaching for (or buy it if they are a tutor), I can see this model.  I am just curious to see if it actually works for them.