Education has evolved a lot over the last few years. Things have definitely changed since I graduated from High School 11 years ago. But one thing remains the same and that is, homework.
Of course when I was in high school I had a leg up over my parents because it least we had AOL at the time which gave me access to a ton of research. Google was also just starting up when I was in high school which made searching for things easier, but there was no homework site or homework app.
Slader, a homework web platform has just released a new mobile app. The Slader platform is a place where students can collaborate with each other on homework problems and assignments.
Venturebeat reported on Thursday that many classrooms have switched to a “flipped classroom” model. That’s where students read or do research while they are at home and then they get together and collaborate on assignments in school, almost like reverse homework. Slader takes that concept and lets students do that via their web platform and mobile app.
Slader empowers students to take control of their academic experience by providing an environment where they can collaborate with their peers without feeling patronized or embarrassed for asking for help on their homework. Slader’s mobile and web apps provide students with free step-by-step solutions and written explanations to their homework problems and offer real-time interactivity with other students around the world. Unlike any other homework help available today, all of the homework answers on Slader are provided by students themselves and give immediate relief from pressing homework assignments, rather than requiring students to spend additional time with tangential learning materials.
On Slader, students can browse textbooks to find those assigned to classes they are taking; view solutions to problems in their books; comment on solutions to provide explanation to other students; and rate solutions based on their accuracy. Slader also has a built-in reward system where students can make money for contributing their input to the homework problems on the site.
Slader’s web platform has already helped 2 million students with 2 million problems. Now they are bringing that platform to iOS to help students to:
- Make money on Slader: Students can earn Slader “Gold,” a virtual currency that students offer to peers as a reward for solving specific homework problems and can be exchanged for real currency.
- Solve real homework problems: Through the mobile app, if a student wants a homework problem solved, they can offer Gold, take a picture of their problem and post it to Slader for another student to solve. Students can also take a picture of the homework answer they’ve solved, upload it to Slader.com and they’re then rewarded with Gold.
- Interact directly with peers: Regardless of geographic location, students can browse through textbooks and exchange explanations and answers with each other.
Slader’s new app functionality was built by a student app developer, Sam Giddins, while he was a senior at Scarsdale Senior High School in Scarsdale, NY. Giddins was searching for an internship when he realized that Slader, a website he and his peers used prolifically, was also based in New York City. Throughout the development process, Giddins guided direction of app development towards the mindset of a high schoolers and how the student demographic wants to interact with Slader.
“No student wants to be a failure, but they don’t often have the mechanisms available to succeed when they need it,” said Kolb,. “With the right tools and positive reinforcement, most students welcome the opportunity to master concepts. We designed our mobile app to help students learn and succeed quickly and easily. After they download the app, all students have to do is turn to their phone to access the same rich information that’s available on the web. Slader is a natural extension of the social environment students are already interacting with via web and mobile.”
