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UA prof denounces online notetaking services

A UA journalism professor verbally opposed the online notetaking service Versity.com in his class Wednesday, telling students the notes aren't factual and are "flat out" incomprehensible.

Associate journalism professor Jim Mitchell told his Journalism 208 lecture class that the Versity.com notes could be unreliable because there is no way to know the quality of the notes.

Mitchell made his announcement after Luke Denmon, Versity.com campus operations manager, advertised in the class with a megaphone.

Patrick Horsman, a finance, management information systems and accounting sophomore and the class notetaker, said Mitchell announced to the lecture class that the Journalism 208 notes had some factual errors and were in part incomprehensible.

However, Horsman said he is getting an A in the class so far and thinks his notes are good.

"I think it's fine," he said. "People shouldn't rely on it, but it's pretty nice if you miss class."

Mitchell said he disagrees with Horsman because he believes students aren't well-served with the notes.

"Spending 10 minutes on Versity.com is not like spending 10 minutes with a professor," he told the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

Versity.com pays student notetakers to take notes in their own classes in about 200 schools in the United States and Canada. Four University of Michigan at Ann Arbor undergraduate students launched the site in 1998. Versity.com started its University of Arizona operations last semester, employing 40 notetakers for 50 classes.

Mitchell, a lawyer and former news broadcaster, also posted a disclaimer for his class Web site titled, "A couple of words about relying on Internet 'class notes' services - Big mistake."

The disclaimer reminds students that other students - not professors - post the notes.

"This doesn't mean they're bad," Mitchell's posting said. "It does mean that they are subject to the note-taking and analytic limitations of the person doing the work. He or she could be a genius, or someone with the I.Q. of an artichoke who got into college only because Mommy and Daddy donated a building."

Mitchell found "five flat-out factual errors," "three statements so poorly constructed that they defy comprehension," and "partial sentences that simply end before noting the important point," the posting said.

Mitchell isn't the only UA professor who opposes Versity.com online notes.

UA accounting professor Leslie Cohen stopped online notetaking for her Accounting 200 class after it decreased attendance. She requested that Versity.com take down her notes both last fall and this spring.

Although she acknowledges that the company tells students the notes are only supplements, Cohen said she still opposes the service.

"I know that's their philosophy, but if it's available they're more likely to miss class, even occasionally," she said.

Another problem with the Web notes, Cohen said, is that professors don't give consent for them to be posted.

"If they have my permission than it's no big deal," she said. "I think there is some violation of academic property.'

Denmon, a marketing and business management junior who checks over Versity.com's notes, said the site's notes looked fine and he hasn't had a problem with his own classes either.

"When I audited the notes that came from that day we advertised, I thought they were accurate," he said. "The classes I've had which have notes on Versity have helped."

Although there are no laws against a professor's lecture words being documented on the Web, Mitchell said the intellectual property belongs to the university and the professor.

"It's a new age, folks, and I'm no Luddite," he stated on his Web site warning.

"I encourage you to embrace any technology or service that helps you - consistent with Code of Academic Integrity - learn the material and do well in school. If the online services fill this bill, more power to 'em," he stated on his page.

The university is looking to see if the notes are illegal, but changes today are too fast, Mitchell said.

"Technology is moving faster than laws," he added.

Yale University banned Versity.com in February after sending a "cease and desist" letter to the company.

Several other schools, including Rice University in Houston, Texas, and the University of California-Berkely are considering ending the service at their campuses.