Not everyone on OpenStudy is a teen with 10 opposable thumbs! It may seem that way on the chat rooms at 2 am, but when we chatted with one of our loyal users, we were amazed to hear her story. ”I am a stay-at-home Mom” she said. We heard, “OpenStudy RockStar!” So we asked her to tell us her story. Meet Geri Lambert folks.
“I am a re-entry “student” having left the technical workforce to raise a family. What I like about OS is the “attitude” of acceptance and affectivity in getting direction on how to solve problems as well as camaraderie in the learning community. I started using it as I was enrolled in a summer NASA Electronic Professional Development Course with Instructor Fran Ruskin and upon completion of that course I asked Professor Ruskin for other e-learning communities to engage in. At that time I was a stay at home mom wanting to keep my math and science skills up. I was also lonely and looking for avenues to pave the way so that I could return to the technical scientific community when the time was right. It was Fran Ruskin that suggested I try Open Study; this was in 2010.
Probably the only story I have to share is how incredibly unsure I was unsure to how to use the learning environment originally…but fellow peers were helpful without a blink! What was truly wonderful was that my peer’s acceptance and willingness to help kept me coming back, and each time I came back, I gained greater confidence. I truly do not have a worst moment. My experience has been most positive.
I am now headed to complete a PhD in Computer Engineering that I started long ago. I want to become a researcher in the world’s scientific community. I use OpenStudy and I feel accepted. This is important to me. I look to bring other nontraditional students to the forum as well so that they might also prosper and re-engage in their possibly stalled careers. In particular, I commend the job that Jon Birdsong and his coworkers are doing to both engage the community for development input as well as implement suggestions to continue to make the program more adaptable to the user’s needs. Jon is very upbeat…it is always a pleasure to receive news of what he and his group is up to with the OpenStudy. OS is a win-win!”
There you go. Geri loves programming, C++ and is comfortable around computers and tennis tournaments! This leaves us wondering, HOW DOES SHE DO IT ALL?
Pokemon posted this on our Feedback site and silenced the whole team for a moment for a collective, “Wow, we are doing something right!” moment. Here is Pokemon, in his own words…
“I remember when I first started doing math in elementary school. During the first year of elementary I knew I had a phobia with math. I just couldn’t comprehend math like the other kids could. As second grade approached I was struggling, and you could see that from my test scores. As years passed, I was struggling even more in math. It was like a different language without a translator . I attended an after school program at the YMCA to help me do my homework, but it did not help very much. When I started fourth grade, my teacher used to hand out multiplication tests to test us . When it was time for the parent teacher’s conference, I knew exactly what the teacher would say: ‘Your son is a splendid kid, really quiet, always does his homework but; his math grades are poor.’
I knew something had to be done but I was dreaming of my future. Ever since I was four I was always interested in airplanes. When my mother told me there was a high school that focused on airplanes, I told myself that when I reached the age of 14 I would be attending the school of my dreams. As I entered fifth grade however, I was still lacking adequate math skills. It was like I was cursed, forever.
My mother told me that I would be entering middle school after sixth grade, ‘Try your best so you can go to a good school.’ I took her advice and worked really hard. I improved my math skills and did well on every subject. During graduation, my name was called out and I received a medal and a certificate for being an honest student. In sixth grade I was the nerdy kid but I had awesome goalie skills in soccer. I got accepted to one of the best middle schools in NY. I got really emotional because I was thinking about my future. During the seventh grade I was doing great in all subjects, except one. You guessed it, math. Math was ruining my life once again. I sat next to the smart kids in the class. I was ok for the first months of the school year. My test grades were horrible. I was lucky I passed the grade with an 85 on math. During the eighth grade I was also struggling in math but this time I was in trouble. My teacher went out of control when you couldn’t answer the question. Once I cried in front of class because I just couldn’t solve a question. Then he made a lousy speech about how I was going to fail the New York State exam. Eighth grade was the worst year of my life.
Now recently I’m a ninth grade and I’m taking Algebra for a two year course. I was thinking to myself, ‘How am I gonna manage high school now, if I have the same problem like before?’ So I told myself that I would try to reach my true potential. I told my mom to pay $100 dollars on Tutorvista, which I felt it was a rip off. My mother had to pay money because I just couldn’t understand the homework. When my Tutorvista trial ended, I was doomed. I was searching every site to look for help. Eventually, I found OpenStudy and I met this guy named Hero. Hero helped me with my math homework. Hero and I talk in Skype so he can give me lessons on the subjects I was struggling on. Hero actually spent his own time helping me. When the tests came I was the first one to be done. I was actually comprehending math! Recently I got the highest score in my math class, a 93! I am so proud of myself and thank everyone that helped me get there. If it wasn’t for OpenStudy and Hero, I don’t know what would have actually happened to me. I give my gratitude to Hero and OpenStudy for helping students like me reach their true potential.”
If this sounds like you, then you know where to go! As for Pokemon, look up, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman!
Today, I’m incredibly excited to announce OpenStudy’s first official Ambassadors! What is an OpenStudy Ambassador? Well, clearly, we consider all of our users to be ambassadors of OpenStudy, but we realized that as we grew bigger and better, we needed some awesome users to help us out! Our new Ambassadors will welcome and guide new users of OpenStudy, help the new users by explaining the OpenStudy Code of Conduct, and will themselves always be a paragon of all that is good, helpful, and awesome about OpenStudy.
I’ve been reading the applications and talking with the applicants over the past two weeks. So, without any further adieu, I would like to introduce you to Ash2326, Dan (dgo), Rahulz, and 2bornot2b! They are all very excited to be welcoming our new users to the OpenStudy family, and we’re excited to have them on board.
Want to be an Ambassador yourself? Then go on over to the application and apply! We will always want more Ambassadors!
Have any questions? Leave them in the comments below, or email us at ambassadors@openstudy.com. Have a fantastic day!
Dear Future Interns,
I’m Neha and I’m a Global Marketing Intern. I know many of you are wondering what this internship is all about, so I wanted to share a few of my experiences as an intern to tell you why I decided to take this fabulous opportunity – and why you should too!
As a Freshman at Brown University and a Computer Science-Economics major, I was looking for a part-time opportunity to learn about Sales and Marketing in a hi-tech company. OpenStudy immediately stood out to me as a reputable hi-tech startup in the Silicon Valley and as an amazing opportunity for personal and professional growth. Due to OpenStudy’s small size, interns are given important responsibilities from Day 1. I really admired the company’s collaborative culture and inspiring mission to make education accessible to all. To make the deal even sweeter, I could manage the internship while still being a full-time college student. Still not convinced? OpenStudy also offers interns compensation proportional to their success as interns!
I really believe in what OpenStudy has to offer. Students at my school would love OpenStudy, if they only knew about it. My mission as an intern is to spread the word about OpenStudy so that more students can get learning! I look forward to developing the skills and know-how to make this possible.
Please contact me if you have any questions about what it means to be an intern! I’m “ns36” on OpenStudy. Can’t wait to meet you all!
Neha Singh
If you’re interested in joining Neha as a Global Intern, please see the application form here.
We are pleased to announce that OpenStudy has been nominated for the 2012 Edison Award – Honoring Innovation and Innovators! OpenStudy has been selected for its “game-changing” work in bringing people from anywhere in the world – regardless of academic institution or geographical location – to give help and get help from a global network of study peers.
The Edison Awards, which have been noted in such publications as Fast Company and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission newsletter, are given to people, products and organizations for such attributes as ingenuity, creativity, sustainability and having a lasting impact on our global society. Examples of past winners include Martha Stewart, J.W. Marriot Jr., Apple iPhone, WiiFit and Tide to Go.
OpenStudy would like to thank the judges for nominating us for such a prestigious award, and regardless of outcome, it is an honor to have our innovation in the education field recognized. Thank you from all of us at OpenStudy.
Hi everyone, I’m Laura Perkowski, OpenStudy’s new Marketing Intern. I’m really excited to be part of OpenStudy’s new West Coast team, and especially to get to meet all of you OpenStudiers, and to get to know all of you. So treat this as our introduction, and hopefully you’ll get to know me a little better through it.
How did I find OpenStudy? I graduated from college back in May, and was looking for an interesting job in San Francisco. I found OpenStudy while I was looking for a marketing job and went to check out the site, and loved it!
It was fascination at first sight. I went to a small college where collaborative learning happened all of the time, and if I needed help, I just walked down to a classmate’s apartment armed with my book, notes, and confusion. Using the Internet for help was nothing new, but a community where people all around the world want to help you not just get the answer, but help you figure out HOW to get the answer was amazing to me. I was accustomed to using instant messaging and email to interact with classmates and friends for help, but not people I’ve never met. I was also shocked by how similar a website of 100,000 users could be to a college of 2,000 students in culture. Both are warm and welcoming, both have a mix of popular members and other, quieter members, and both have a diverse group of supportive folks!
Over the past few weeks, I’ve spent far more time on OpenStudy than I have on almost any other website. It was amazing how welcoming people were to me. A few users knew that I was a new member of the team, but most didn’t. When I was able to answer questions in the mathematics and writing groups, I had no way of knowing what the community’s response would be to me. It was a little nervewracking to post that first answer! Then people seemed to like my answers and they fanned me! I was so thrilled when I got my first testimonial!
I’m still so impressed by the quality and quantity of users that we have, and I hope to never stop being impressed. We have users ask questions about subjects ranging from linear algebra to very specific grammar protocols. I get to chat with people from all over the United States, India, the Maldives, Nepal, and Ghana (just to name a few!). I’m also just as impressed by the users who aren’t in school, who don’t need the site to improve their knowledge, but come to help others. What other community is like this on the Internet? How many other people would love this community?
That’s my job now. I’m here to help get the word out about OpenStudy and to get us new users and friends on the site. Maybe I’ll end up coming to your school to promote OpenStudy. If that’s the case, please come by and say “Hi!” to me. This is a site I would have gotten incredible value out of while in high school and college, and a site I now tell my friends still in school about. It’s an exciting time to be part of the OpenStudy team and part of the OpenStudy community. We’re starting the OpenStudy Ambassadors program and the OpenStudy Global Interns Program, and that’s just what we have for January!
I want to end with saying thank you to the OpenStudy team, especially to Preetha and Chris, for choosing me to join the fantastic OpenStudy team. It has been an incredibly interesting first week, and I can’t wait to see what I learn and who I meet next. Thank you also to the OpenStudy users who made me feel welcome, to those who fanned me, and to those who ask fantastic questions that I enjoy answering. To those that I haven’t met yet, don’t worry! I’ll meet you soon. Feel free to ask me questions, because I love making new friends! Want to keep our conversation going? Please comment down below, or find me on OpenStudy (I’m Laura*). I cannot wait to see how we all will change and improve OpenStudy over the next year!
Open Study's Having a Party!
Hi OpenStudiers! Ready for the party to kick off another great semester? You are invited to the OpenStudy Back to School Party on Jan 15, 19.00 GMT (11:00 am Pacific Time). Its online – of course.
How to get ready for the party.
1. RSVP: Official Party Room and RSVP and register in the link there to get the swag.
2. Who’s coming? Go to OpenStudy Facebook page to catch the action. Be sure to Like us when you are there.
3. Check the Music system: The party is going to take place at Jamcloud - a site where we can all join together and share music, videos, you name it, together! We’re also planning on giving away prizes, having some fun polls, and generally just having a good time!
4. Put on your party clothes and join us with nicely polished brains!
So here’s the plan: at 11AM PST on January 15th, the whole OpenStudy team is going to be at the OpenStudy Party (on OpenStudy, direct link above) and JamCloud. We will be sharing music and videos, and doing what we like to do best, getting to know you. As part of the festivities, we’ll run some contests, we’ll challenge you with some brainteasers, share in a few laughs, and, the best part, we’ll be giving out some OpenStudy T-shirts as well as some Amazon gift cards!
We have had a blast of a year, grown from 15,000 to 80,000 and who else to thank but you, the OpenStudier?
Here are some of the contests we’ll be running:
Top Helper - Who is the #1 Helper on OpenStudy? Medals shmedals, Who do you think has helped the most on OpenStudy? Let us know! The winner gets a $25 Amazon gift card.
Top Referrer – The one who invites the most of their friend’s to the party gets a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Get inviting! To win, share using the Facebook or Twitter buttons from OpenStudy.com, then when that person registers, we’ll record it and reward the Top Referrer.
Best Use of the Equation Editor – Who has made the best, most complex, most elegant equations on OpenStudy? Winner gets $10 in Amazon cash!
Most Time Spent on Problems – Who’s that OpenStudier that spent so much time on a problem, to switch on the lightbulb, that you have to recognize them? Reward them by voting to give them a $10 Amazon gift card!
Best Question Asker – Help us reward the OpenStudier who regularly asks the best questions, and sticks around to figure out HOW to do something, not just an answer. They deserve $10 for that (at least)!
We’ll also be giving out a couple of $5 gift cards during the party, as well as OpenStudy T-shirts (more on how to win coming soon).
Can’t install Jamcloud? Don’t worry. There will be plenty of action in the Party Room – you won’t miss it. Crank up your speakers!
Can’t join us? Awww! We’ll miss you for sure. And just to prove that we will, if you register and we’ll keep you in the drawing. (Scroll back up – and register)
See you all there.
How global are we? Try this. Where else can you find someone from Australia chatting with someone from Tanzania while users from Pakistan and USA join in for a quick Swahili lesson? That is Global with a capital G!
TranceNova comes to us from Australia and speaks some Swahili, and when she is not doing that, she is rocking MIT OCW Biology! We are really impressed that she was interviewed by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Read it here.
Like many other people I stumbled upon the OpenStudy website. I remember being so curious about the questions and their answers. I spent a while roaming the numerous sections seeing what people were doing. Then I came across a question and I knew the answer! It was an interesting question and I just had to put an answer down, enlighten someone perhaps thousands of kilometers away from me. So I timidly answered the question, all the while worrying if my answer was wrong, too short, or any number of other things. So there my shiny answer sat and POP! – a message came up, someone had given me a medal! I couldn’t believe it! Someone actually liked my answer?
It was from that moment I was utterly hooked, driven by the urge to help others (make them happy perhaps?), get achievements, and feel a little smart myself. In return I found new friends and a supportive community. I don’t think there is another way someone from Australia could meet someone from Tanzania and swap Swahili lessons, chat with a medical school student from Mexico, while at the same time helping a 12th grader agonizing over AP Biology. I feel like my knowledge is useful to someone, and I have gained another friend in a foreign land.
I am now a postgraduate student in Ecology, Entomology and Soil Science. Through OpenStudy I am able to spread my knowledge of science and help others learn. OpenStudy has helped refresh things in my memory that I had learned long ago (and since completely forgotten!), which are coming in helpful, sometimes in unexpected places. I learn new things and old things and even found myself linking unrelated study areas to understand the same concepts, collaboration at its best!
How is your Swahili? Join us today on OpenStudy and make a new friend in a foreign land!
Sasogeek posted this note in OpenStudy Feedback and we were really excited to read it. Preetha then blogged about it and we reached out to him and asked him to tell us his story. He wrote us an open letter and we wanted it to share it with you all. Today he has entered his YouTube video for a NASA competion. Any colleges out there listening to this 12th grader?
You may wonder how out of the blue, I decided to post that comment. But even if you did not wonder, my story should explain it all.
My name is Samuel Sowah Mensah, but it is of my first two names that I derived the nickname “saso” and the addition geek is just because that is who I am. I am in 12th grade in a school in Ghana, far away from OpenStudy. I would love to go to a college in the US, and am working very hard to achieve that dream.
Seven years ago, my brothers and I had our first computer and it was a good old CRT monitor and a Pentium 4 Dell system. The only time I had used a computer before this was about 2 hours a week in school during the ICT class, a couple of years ago. The internet was a new thing to me, but out of curiosity, I wanted to know more about how the computer worked because using it was fascinating and interesting. One day I found that I could search for anything I wanted to know on the internet and find answers. So then I began to save money during the week, and spend it all in an internet café, to gain more knowledge about computers. All this while, I was only a mediocre student at school, though wasn’t doing too poorly.
So two years later with my own personal laptop, I had the whole machine right in front of me, all for myself, but no internet! I felt I could learn all I wanted at the comfort of my home anytime I wanted- if I had internet. So I convinced my parents to get us an internet connection at home and from then on, began learning, bit by bit, about computers. I developed a passion for becoming a computer scientist because every bit of information I consumed about computers at the time was just fascinating. What intrigued me most, was how programs work as well as how the internet works. They both seem to follow the same pattern of work flow, which was to follow instructions. So here was what was cool, I get to tell the computer what it should do and it has no choice but to obey me. What was cooler than that? So I jumped to the opportunity of learning how to code programs and build websites from scratch.
With this newfound passion, and obsession, my school work was going downhill. When I did realize this, I began to wonder whether I could use my knowledge of the internet to my advantage and to improve my grades. This was when I discovered OpenStudy.
How did I find OpenStudy? My interest in studying computer science led me to MIT’s OpenCourseWare Introduction to CS Programming course and OpenStudy’s logo invited me to me to study with others! Lo and behold, it was an OpenStudy chat, and Owlfred welcomed me and helped me. That’s where it all began!
Since joining OpenStudy, I came to develop an interest in the pure sciences (especially physics) and mathematics; these were two subjects I previously hated with every bit of blood flowing through my body! Now I have the confidence that when I come across a problem in math and science, I will have a fair idea how to solve it. I know I have probably seen something like that on OpenStudy, and that some one may have asked something similar. I also feel that since I have expressed my solutions to problems either in class or on OpenStudy, I have helped other people, but most importantly, I have helped myself.
I was looking back to the beginning of this year, and thinking of how OpenStudy just came to play an important part of my life, how it gave me a new perspective on learning, and how much it reduced my fear of facing difficult questions. I thought I should just put it out there about how much I appreciate OpenStudy, so I did. I posted this on OpenStudy Feedback. Then you noticed, and I even appreciate you more because you took it upon yourself to write a blog just about my comment. Once again, thank you. Thank you to the OpenStudy team as well for making learning such a wonderful game. I have found helping others to be fun and entertaining, and I have found that I also learn as I “teach.”
One day, with the help of my friends from all over the world, I hope to become a wonderful computer scientist and an amazing web developer!
-Samuel Sowah Mensah
Who doesn’t like a good story? And who doesn’t believe fairy tales can come true? At OpenStudy we see this all the time. So our New Year Resolutions for 2012 was to share some of the stories of our users. If you have an OpenStudy story you’d like to share, well, call me. Here is Myininaya’s story, in her own words. Myininaya is an all powerful moderator, level 97, with hundreds of students. Who is she? Read on.
My Math Journey
I have had a long math journey from a remedial math course in a community college to teaching math in a small college in Arkansas and to my current role as user/moderator on OpenStudy, helping hundreds of people learn math. I am both a helper on OpenStudy and a learner myself. Here is my story.
I started with low ACT scores which led me to remedial math. Actually, the weird thing was math was my favorite subject so this score caused me great disappointment in myself. Then I found an awesome math teacher; and I took him for every single math class in the community college. He made me feel like math was my favorite subject again! I was so excited. I knew math was hot to me.
Then I transferred to a university and was scared of math again. I tried switching majors from math to accounting, but after taking the most boring class called economics, I switched back to my dear friend, math. I got to take my favorite teacher again for business calculus (he was teaching part time at the university). One more he gave me hope and so I stuck with math and completed my BS in math, and then a MS!
My math teacher played such an important role in my life, that I decided to become a math teacher. While doing that I am also working towards a PhD in cryptography. So my learning journey continues and now on my weird and wonderful path, there is a shining goal.
I use OpenStudy because it is a great way to keep practicing math, learn new things, and help people. I learn more math from others and I learn about teaching by helping learners of all ages, backgrounds and cultures. I learn patience and find new ways of explaining things. Math is a huge subject. You can never stop learning it. And often you need a good teacher who believes in you. There are some great helpers on this site like JamesJ, Zarkon, Satellite73, turingtest, and many, many others (Please forgive me if I have not mentioned you by name). What is wonderful is that you can come to OpenStudy really wanting to learn, and you will find someone who will encourage you and help you. And, if you are good in math, spend some time here and help some one. You may be able to help them on their weird and wonderful learning journey.
My message to people learning math everywhere: There should be no excuses. Finish college and don’t complain. Be responsible and yes, females can do math!
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