Submitted by Mary Rundell-Holmes on Mon, 12/19/2011 - 11:45
Have you ever been frustrated when you can't remember important material you studied only days ago? Josh Silverman and his two classmates Bill DeRusha and Jason Urton have developed just the thing a student needs--hi-tech study aids called StudyEgg. In fact, it's a booming business on campus at Brandeis Unviersity and will be expanding to other campuses in the near future.
"What we do at StudyEgg," Urton told Entrepreneur Magazine, "is take everyting a student needs to know for his classes--PowerPoint slides, notes or textbooks--and convert that all into short, focused activities for a smartphone." The program then distributes the activities in bite-sized units so that the user doesn't suffer from information overload.
Silverman's experiences as both learner and teacher helped birth the idea. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he spent time teaching English and IT in Korea and Spain--though his bachelor's degree was in political science. He taught highly intelligent children who learned quickly--but also forgot quickly. Just days after clearly grasping a concept/fact, he found them staring at him blankly when he referred to the previously learned material. He suddenly recognized in his young students the same problem he had experienced in both high school and college.
When he returned to the United States, he enrolled in a master's program in computer science at Brandeis University, where he met DeRusha and Urton.The three of them began to research study techniques. They discovered that activity-based studying--using such methods as flash cards and fill-in-the-blank questions--was two to three times more effective than typical note reading and dramatically extends recall of content over time.
The tech-savvy trio put their heads together and came up with an online note-taking system for Brandeis students. While they had 1,200 sign up for the service, very few followed through with using it. The three went back to work and developed StudyEgg, available online and accessible on the IPhone. Students found the study activities much more engaging, so business is growing quickly.