A new website that levels the academic playing field for students has hit Georgia Southern.

Koofers.com is an academic platform that allows students and professors to share common knowledge by uploading study guides, notes and even old exams and sharing them with all registered users.

Koofers.com is a free service offered to all students and professors. All one needs to register is a valid university e-mail.

“[Koofers.com] really helps students prepare for any exam. It lets them see how the professor gives the exam, whether the test is mostly multiple choice or essay,” said Michael Rihani, co-founder of Koofers.com.

“It can even help with scheduling classes by letting students know what to expect with each professor.”

Besides making old exams and quizzes available, students and professors can upload or create notes and flashcards to be shared with all Koofers.com users.

Students can also share and use materials from other universities in the Koofers.com network. Since its creation two and a half years ago, Koofers.com is available at 65-70 percent of universities and colleges in the United States.

Rihani said that Koofers.com works within the honor codes of the universities to which it provides services and is also a member of the Center for Academic Integrity, which was established at Clemson University.

“Koofers.com works closely with the university to make sure the integrity of the university is kept. We inform professors when their materials are posted. We also permanently take down any material that could assist cheating,” he said

Rihani mentioned that most universities’ student and faculty handbooks encourage the sharing of common knowledge, such as notes and old assignments, to level the playing field for those students who do not have access to previous exams or other study materials.

This is also the case at GSU. In the Faculty Guide to Adjudicating Academic Dishonesty, it reads:

“Files of past examinations are maintained by many organizations and are readily available to students. Faculty members are encouraged to prepare new examinations each semester and to consider making copies of past examinations available to all students.”

Georj Lewis, dean of students, said that sharing of academic information can be good for students, as long as academic integrity is not lost.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a professor and a student sharing information,” said Lewis.

“It’s all about learning. That’s really what the ultimate goal is, for people to learn and master the material, as long as it’s done in an ethical way that doesn’t jeopardize academic integrity.”

Users of Koofers.com can also record how many exams, quizzes, projects or papers their professor gives, as well as how easy or hard these assignments are.

The student may also rate their professor on knowledge, communication, enthusiasm, fairness, preparation, availability, and overall. Students are also able to see the average grade for each class taught by a professor.

The web site records all of this information for users to see when considering what classes to take with which professors.

Koofers.com got its unique name from a similar idea used by the Greek Life community at Virginia Tech in the 1940s.

Fraternity and sorority members would save their old tests and notes and, at the end of the term, would store them in a box called a “coffer.”

Soon, all the materials in the box became known as “coffers,” and they were available to all members of that Greek organization to use.