12 Aug 2014

Uni students warned about website

3:03 pm on 12 August 2014

Two universities are warning their students against the quality of the course notes they can buy off an Australian company's website.

Nexus Notes is an online marketplace for university students to buy and sell their notes at $35 a set, and get half the profit in return if it sells.

A professor at the Victoria University of Wellington Penny Boumelha said buyers had no way of knowing the accuracy or quality of the notes.

She said real learning comes from engaging with text books, lectures, tutorials, assignments and teacher-student contact.

The University of Auckland is also warning its students against the site, saying they need to be sure they're not plagiarising someone else's work.

Nexus Notes chief executive Hugh Minson said some Otago and Auckland university students had already uploaded notes.

He said they have a vetting process in place to ensure only notes from students who achieve marks of 73 percent and above, are approved.

Mr Minson said they are not encouraging students to be slack, skip lectures or to not buy text books, but to try an alternative learning method.

"Students learn in many ways and a well written set of notes by a leading student who has taken that subject just ahead of you is a very powerful way to learn."