You had an internship commitment, rehearsal, work study, and a mandatory club meeting and could not make it to class. There is an exam tomorrow and you're shy and don't know anyone in the 300 person lecture. (To the tune of "Ghostbusters.") When you missed class and didn't get the notes...who you gonna call? Course Hero! Greater than Superman and heftier than the Hulk, Course Hero will surely come to save the day!
The San Francisco based e-learning startup was founded in 2006 by Cornell University student Andrew Grauer. Grauer, too, had missed lecture and was too shy to ask anyone for the notes. He founded the company on a crowd-sourced model, where students can add their own documents and flashcards to be used by other students. Since its establishment, Course Hero has acquired over 7 million course and school-specific documents from more than 65,000 schools and a basic registered user base of over 6 million people. Additionally, the company has a 24/7 tutoring service where tutors can earn money for providing answers to the questions users may have.
Their great mission does not stop there. In 2010, Course Hero partnered with the non-profit Books for Africa campaign (pictured above). For every 10 documents uploaded through their Knowledge Drive Initiative, Course Hero has pledged to donate one book to underserved children in Gambia. Since 2010, users have collectively donated over 245,000 books. That's 245,000 books closer to giving children in Africa the beautiful gift of education. The Knowledge Drive increases the accessibility of education and broadens the incentive to share your knowledge.
When you finish a class, what do you do with your materials? Instead of reusing them like you may have planned, those notes and quizzes will pick up dust in the attic someplace. Understanding this, CEO Grauer formed Course Hero on the crowd-sourced model. Students are encouraged to upload their own resources to the website and will, in turn, receive "unlocks" to the documents others share. Grauer (pictured above) says that crowd-sourcing is "putting the power in the hands of the learner and allowing them to take charge of their education and take part in the education of others." This intimate exchange of information is what makes the brand stand out from its competitors. It is 100% by students. 100% for students.
Course Hero is transforming the educational technology industry. In sharp contrast to its rivals, Course Hero extends its mission to create a community beyond the confines of one's own school and internationalizes a service-oriented initiative to help us all become Heroes. Becoming a superhero is a secret passion for many of us. With Course Hero, that can happen. You may not be able to shoot spider webs from your finger tips and swing from building to building, but you'll make a difference, guaranteed. Become a Hero today.
