Korastak Puts all the Notes You Need in One Place
Hayam A. Mahran
@HayamAbdallahh
Sometimes, the reason for struggling with courses could be as simple as not being able to take decent notes during class. Korastak (your notebook) is a website exclusive to AUC that helps students bypass such obstacles by sharing their notes with their colleagues.
AUC Engineering Alumni Badr Al Khamissi, Ahmed Agha, and Youssef Gamaleldin developed the concept in their sophomore year because they were struggling to find good notes that would have helped them study.
“At [that] moment, I thought: Why don’t we have a website for students to share their notes and benefit other students? That’s when I got the idea of Korastak,” Al Khamissi said.
The first version of Korastak went online in 2016. Another version of the website was developed in 2017. It currently has more than 140 student notes that are divided by the majors and courses offered at AUC.
To build their database, the founders contacted individuals and different AUC associations. They contacted campus associations in the Student Union, the Economics, Psychology, Political Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Electronics and Communication Engineering departments.
“We couldn’t launch the website without having a database, so we had to reach out to individuals and associations to help us in collecting data,” Agha said.
One of the founders’ main goals was to make the website as simple as possible to make it easy for students to search and upload notes.
“We were very concerned about how to make this website easy for everyone to use because if it was complicated, students would not bother to upload or even search for notes,” Al Khamissi said.
Korastak has guidelines that students have to follow when sharing notes on the website. For example, students are only allowed to share their own notes, and can’t share an instructor’s course slides or past exams to avoid copyright infringement.
When uploading their notes, students also have to clarify whether their notes are complete. They also have to provide information about the course, the semester taken and the name of the instructor.
“We wanted to make all AUCians aware of the website, so we needed some help from other associations. The SU collaborated with us, and we did a teaser video that was shared on the official SU Facebook page, which helped us to make Korastak known between students,” Gamaleldin said.
Marketing the website to AUCians and convincing them to upload their notes to share, however, posed a set of challenges.
Agha said that some students might avoid sharing their notes because they thought it wouldn’t be fair.
Time was also an issue because of how long it takes to scan and upload every page of notes.
“We thought of doing a Top Authors section for those who share many notes on Korastak as an incentive for them and other students to share their notes,” Agha told The Caravan.
Fatma Eita, an Engineering graduate student and one of the Top Authors, finds Korastak a suitable place to share her notes.
“I have many notes that I’ve always wanted to share, as they might be beneficial for other students, but I did not know where to share them. So I find that Korastak is a perfect place because it is very organized, and all students can easily have access to the notes,” Eita said.
Eita also finds that there are many students who are very good academically but just can’t concentrate in class and write decent notes at the same time.
“I know many students who are not good at taking notes, and this really affects their grades. So I don’t know why I would keep my notes for myself when I can share them with students to benefit from. I actually used to be very happy when my colleagues take notes from me and get good grades,” she added.
The Korastak founders insist that the website is not a place for students to cheat or take credit for other students’ efforts. Korastak is only a way of helping students study better, and no student should entirely depend on it, they advise.
They are planning on improving the website and will be adding more features to the website.
“One of the things we wanted to do is to make past exams available for students on Korastak. However, we have first to take approval from the instructors and the departments,” Gamaleldin told The Caravan.
