The main goal of this website is to provide a concise and effective service to OSU students. It's a place where they can meet people from their classrooms and exchange information such as classroom notes, ask and answer homework questions, receive feedback on projects in progress (such as art and design pre-critiques) and exchange materials.
In order to do provide a free service to students, there will be a space where advertisers can pay to place ads. Those ads would be tailored to our specific target audience. For example, there will be food advertisements (especially for healthy food) and bookstore advertisements. These funds will be used for the upkeep and improvement of the site.
2. Website Goals
The website will provide relevant information in an effective way to students in need of homework help, and provide a platform for students to sell/buy/exchange books, notes, and other materials (that do not break plagiarism rules!)
The website will have a relatively simple layout, so that students can navigate the site and accomplish tasks easily. Since using this site is optional to students, if it is too confusing then it won't be helpful and students won't use it. The site will be easy to sign into (using your OSU username and password) and it will be easy for students to add themselves to their respective classes. Students can choose if they wish to receive notifications via email or not.
The site will allow students to post resources from other websites (such as YouTube and Khan Academy). There may be a feed for student posts that imbeds videos from outside resources directly into the feed, or the fed may contain an ongoing list of links to take the user to these outside resources.
3. User tasks
This website will provide students with the opportunity to sell their used textbooks, materials, and class notes, as well as the chance to buy materials directly from other students. By avoiding the middleman (bookstores), student will be able to get more money when selling, and pay less when purchasing materials.
There will be a "board" where students that excel in a particular school subject and wish to make extra cash through tutoring can advertise tutoring classes. We would not change for students to advertise tutoring classes. As we mentioned before, food and books advertisers would be the only ones paying to advertise.
There will also be a space where students can add themselves to a group chat (by searching their class number and using their OSU login name and password) where they can seek help from other students regarding specific classes. This is a way to meet other students and help each other get through a class. The content would be exclusively school related. At the end of every semester every group would be deleted and new ones would be created for the following semester.
Group chats for art and design classes will have an extra feature that will allow them to post their work previous to class critic days. That way students can get feedback on their work before they submit it for class critics.
We will create a space where students can post links to relevant sites such as the Kahn Academy. The information of this space will not be deleted at the end of every semester, they will remain there for the future students to have access to.
To provide a free service to students and keep the website running we will allow ads that are tailored to the needs of the students to be posted on the website. We don't have a set cost yet. We will create a package cost that would state the cost per ad/space. Food dinners and bookstores would pay to place their ads on the website due to the high traffic of students.
This website will provide students with the opportunity to sell their used textbooks, materials, and class notes, as well as the chance to buy materials directly from other students. By avoiding the middleman (bookstores), student will be able to get more money when selling, and pay less when purchasing materials.
There will be a "board" where students that excel in a particular school subject and wish to make extra cash through tutoring can advertise tutoring classes. We would not change for students to advertise tutoring classes. As we mentioned before, food and books advertisers would be the only ones paying to advertise.
There will also be a space where students can add themselves to a group chat (by searching their class number and using their OSU login name and password) where they can seek help from other students regarding specific classes. This is a way to meet other students and help each other get through a class. The content would be exclusively school related. At the end of every semester every group would be deleted and new ones would be created for the following semester.
Group chats for art and design classes will have an extra feature that will allow them to post their work previous to class critic days. That way students can get feedback on their work before they submit it for class critics.
We will create a space where students can post links to relevant sites such as the Kahn Academy. The information of this space will not be deleted at the end of every semester, they will remain there for the future students to have access to.
To provide a free service to students and keep the website running we will allow ads that are tailored to the needs of the students to be posted on the website. We don't have a set cost yet. We will create a package cost that would state the cost per ad/space. Food dinners and bookstores would pay to place their ads on the website due to the high traffic of students.
4. Differentiators
MarketOSU is a site geared toward textbook and ticket exchange for students. While our site will also facilitate textbook exchange, it will also facilitate discussion, which OSU exchange does not do. However, our site will not be a place to trade tickets because it will be focused on academics. Both our site and MarketOSU will be tied to users' OSU accounts to keep out random people that are not students.
Reddit is a platform where links and/or text can be posted. Posts can be discussed in the comments. Reddit has topical subforums, known as subreddits. A subreddit can be dedicated to a broad or narrow interest (e.g. r/news, r/pics, r/cooking, r/glitch_art), a format of discussion (e.g. r/askreddit, where people ask and answer questions), or a geographical area, among other things. There is a subreddit for OSU (r/osu), where students and occasional faculty members discuss OSU-specific things. Members ask questions ("Is campus internet down for anyone else?", "Can anyone tell me some perks of being a first year FisherDirect student?", "Healthy Eating on campus?") give useful information ("Columbus Zoo admittance is FREE tomorrow!", "Do NOT rent through Craig King Realty") and generally discuss news and share triumphs and complaints. An advantage our site can have over r/osu is structure: r/osu is a catch-all for all OSU-related topics and is not conducive to fine-grained discussion about classes. r/osu dances on the edge of anonymity: while reddit accounts are not attached to a name, posting in r/osu makes it much easier for someone to figure out a user's identity.
Craigslist is known to everyone: a virtual bulletin board (divided by metro area) where people can buy and sell goods and services, look for jobs, and arrange events/projects. Each city's Craigslist page is divided into categories (Community, Housing, Jobs, Gigs, For Sale, Personals, Discussion Forums, and Resumes), which are further divided into subcategories. While our site will also be a well-organized virtual watering hole of sorts, it will be less sketchy (because Craigslist is useful but often sketchy), have better visual design, and be tailored towards OSU students.
MarketOSU is a site geared toward textbook and ticket exchange for students. While our site will also facilitate textbook exchange, it will also facilitate discussion, which OSU exchange does not do. However, our site will not be a place to trade tickets because it will be focused on academics. Both our site and MarketOSU will be tied to users' OSU accounts to keep out random people that are not students.
Reddit is a platform where links and/or text can be posted. Posts can be discussed in the comments. Reddit has topical subforums, known as subreddits. A subreddit can be dedicated to a broad or narrow interest (e.g. r/news, r/pics, r/cooking, r/glitch_art), a format of discussion (e.g. r/askreddit, where people ask and answer questions), or a geographical area, among other things. There is a subreddit for OSU (r/osu), where students and occasional faculty members discuss OSU-specific things. Members ask questions ("Is campus internet down for anyone else?", "Can anyone tell me some perks of being a first year FisherDirect student?", "Healthy Eating on campus?") give useful information ("Columbus Zoo admittance is FREE tomorrow!", "Do NOT rent through Craig King Realty") and generally discuss news and share triumphs and complaints. An advantage our site can have over r/osu is structure: r/osu is a catch-all for all OSU-related topics and is not conducive to fine-grained discussion about classes. r/osu dances on the edge of anonymity: while reddit accounts are not attached to a name, posting in r/osu makes it much easier for someone to figure out a user's identity.
Craigslist is known to everyone: a virtual bulletin board (divided by metro area) where people can buy and sell goods and services, look for jobs, and arrange events/projects. Each city's Craigslist page is divided into categories (Community, Housing, Jobs, Gigs, For Sale, Personals, Discussion Forums, and Resumes), which are further divided into subcategories. While our site will also be a well-organized virtual watering hole of sorts, it will be less sketchy (because Craigslist is useful but often sketchy), have better visual design, and be tailored towards OSU students.
5. Audience/behavior
The audience of this website will be OSU Columbus campus students. Students may be of any age but most students are 18 years old to mid twenties. This site may be utilized more by younger students who may be taking prerequisite or general education classes that have large class sizes. However, any student in any size class may utilize this site to find help or additional resources. Students that are less outgoing may find this as an easier way to interact with classmates. The website will be free to use with an active osu ID, since it is expected that most college students either don't have much extra money or won't wish to spend money for this service.
Students will approach this website as a way to informally and quickly find the materials or the help they need. They may utilize the site functions as little or as much as they like, whether they wish to to solely use it to find materials and other resources on the web, or wish to use it to make friends or connections in their class to ask questions or find people to work on assignments with. The site will be moderated, and the students are expected to behave with respect towards others and use ethical collaboration practices (i.e. no plagiarism). However, students are expected to feel comfortable using the website and to approach the site without intimidation. Students often do not use the Carmen discussion tool and do not utilize the emails of classmates, since they may feel awkward or will not receive replies. This site allows students to behave less formally and to not be afraid to collaborate with students or ask for help when they need it.
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