So what is a social learning website? According to Brian Shannon, CEO of College-Cram.com: "Social learning focuses on the learning that occurs within a social context. It considers that people learn from one another, not just in a vaccuum. College-Cram, which has for years offered study resources for students around the world, now boasts a full-featured social networking core that brings social learning to our students."

"Facebook, Myspace, and other social networks appeal to students, but they are not educational. We haven't seen another site like College-Cram that is educational AND was built specifically for students," says VP of Operations Rudy Lopes. "Add to that our extensive Cramlet library and you have a winning combination ripe for success."

The College-Cram.com library has grown since 2004 to serve thousands of students worldwide. It includes over 800 Cramlets™, tutorials, quizzes, and study sheets that help students get better grades in less time. Students (and instructors) can also share their own presentations, outlines, and notes in their "notebook" and form study groups without geographic boundaries.

Social networking sites have become staples in the student experience. College-Cram can help ensure that learning will remain a staple as well. After all, remaining in school is a key part of the student experience, isn't it?

College-Cram.com is a free online social learning resource with communities organized by subject area. College courses usually cover 100 or more concepts, but each Cramlet™ from College-Cram.com covers just one concept and can be completed in less than five minutes. Get better grades in less time at College-Cram.com.
 

The folks at College-Cram see "helping students" as a primary goal, so they decided to transform College-Cram.com into a totally free study resource in time for the fall semester. "Too many companies are making too much money on the backs of college students," stated VP Rudy Lopes. "I have a daughter in school myself, I know how bad it can get." CFO Jack Robinson added, "We have a moral obligation to help these students. We can't have the leaders of tomorrow struggling to pay off the education costs of today."

"We are happy to be part of the growing backlash against rising textbook prices and other skyrocketing college costs," states company president Brian Shannon. "We hope that by taking advantage of free on-line resources such as College-Cram, college students can send a message to the publishers -- change your business model or go the way of the dinosaur."

College-Cram.com is a free online study resource providing hundreds and hundreds of Cramlets and study sheets. College courses usually cover 100 or more concepts, but each CramletT covers just one concept and can be completed in less than five minutes. Get better grades in less time at College-Cram.com.

AOL's shift to a free-service business model has been rocky, with many of their paying customers enduring a lengthy telephone marketing process to actually switch to the free choice. This has led to confusion and frustration among AOL's customers, and they must address these problems while struggling to hold onto their subscriber base.

The Smartacus Corporation similarly decided to shift their College-Cram.com web site to a totally free subscriber service, but their results were very different from AOL. The transition was completed successfully on August 1, without frustrating their paying customers or experiencing any downtime.

College-Cram.com made their transition work smoothly through advance planning and proactive communication with their customers. The change was implemented in stages following the decision this spring to switch their online study library to be a free study resource for the Fall 2006 semester.

Subscription terms for new and renewing customers were limited to shorter and shorter periods until the cutover on August 1. According to Brian Shannon, President of College-Cram.com, this approach minimized the number of customers with paid subscriptions that ran beyond the free cutoff date. "We had some subscribers who purchased one-year subscription last semester, and a few that bought a one-month subscription in July. This made it the perfect time to implement the change ­ when paid subscriptions were lowest and before students returned for the fall semester. On August 2 we processed refund credits for all remaining subscriptions, and you can be sure that nobody complained about getting a refund."

VP Rudy Lopes is pleased with the results. "We sent a brief announcement to everyone who had ever registered at College-Cram. The response has been an immediate and dramatic spike in usage that is continuing to increase. We've had more subscribers, more traffic, and more usage in the first ten days of August than ever before, and the fall semester hasn't even started yet."

If business success is all about proper planning and execution, then perhaps AOL could learn a thing or two from the folks at College-Cram.com.

College-Cram.com is an online study resource providing hundreds and hundreds of Cramlets and study sheets. College courses usually cover 100 or more concepts, but each Cramlet covers just one concept and can be completed in less than five minutes. Get better grades in less time at College-Cram.com.

College-Cram.com is a 24/7 quick cram resource for students in math, business, science and foreign languages. The College-Cram library boasts 511 interactive modules or "Cramlets™" to help students learn key concepts in time for their next big test.

"Our growing Cramlet™ library has been a big factor in our success," said Brian Shannon, Smartacus president. "Each one is truly interactive, not just an automated page turner. We have Formula Solvers that walk you step-by-step through solving a formula using your own numbers, and Tab Tutors that use multiple learning styles to teach concepts. We have structured tutorials for concepts like factoring trinomials, and unstructured discovery-oriented ones for science topics like the periodic table. With 511 Cramlets™ and growing, we've proven that we're here for the long haul."

"Student feedback to our service has been very encouraging," added CFO Jack Robinson. "Across the country and around the world, students are using our Cramlets™ to learn and they're telling their friends about it, too!"

College-Cram.com offers subscriptions to its ever-growing library, and includes dozens of free Cramlets™ to give students and instructors a sampling of the breadth and depth available.

The Smartacus Corporation (a client of Tech Fort Worth business incubator) is a global publisher of e-learning materials for high school, home-school, and college students. It currently operates College-Cram.com, a 24/7 quick cram resource for college students, and CafeGenius.com, a tutorial library and study site for high school and home-school students. Its products focus on the student and strive to be useful, useable, and unique. The Smartacus Corporation is currently seeking investment to support increased production and marketing activities.

College-Cram.com is a 24/7 quick cram resource for students to access what they need when they need it, for topics in math, business, science and foreign languages. The College-Cram library boasts over 490 individual interactive quick learning modules or "CramletsT" to help get students over the hump in time for a big test.

"Students struggling with business math can now drop their books and pick up a mouse," said Brian Shannon, Smartacus president. "For only $15 per month they can get quick and directed help in Algebra, Business Math, Accounting, Finance, Physics and more, so they can't go wrong."

Rudy Lopes, Smartacus vice president, added: "Professors would prefer that students fully understand all the theory and skills behind every subject, but that's just not practical. Students have way too much to do and not enough time - they need a resource like College-Cram.com to help them master the skills they need to pass their exams."

College-Cram.com offers monthly subscriptions to its ever-growing library, and includes dozens of free CramletsT to give students and instructors a sampling of the breadth and depth available.

The Smartacus Corporation (a client of TechFortWorth business incubator) is a global publisher of e-learning materials for high school, home-school, and college students. It currently operates College-Cram.com, a 24/7 tutorial library and textbook alternative for college students, CafeGenius.com, a tutorial library and study site for high school and home-school students. Its products focus on the student and strive to be useful, useable, and unique. The Smartacus Corporation is currently seeking investment to support increased production and marketing activities.

Striking back for students' interests, The Smartacus Corporation today announced the unveiling of their complete Algebra study suite on College-Cram.com, a 24/7 tutorial library and study site for college students.

College-Cram.com currently boasts over 100 interactive learning modules in Algebra alone, each focused on a single Algebra concept.

"Students now have a choice," said Brian Shannon, Smartacus president. "They can pay $120 or more for an algebra textbook, or get the same coverage from our library for $10 or less per month. Their subscription also includes hundreds of modules available in other subjects like Accounting, Spanish, and Chemistry, so they can't go wrong."

Rudy Lopes, Smartacus vice president, puts it in simpler terms: "The algebra lesson starts here: $10 is less than $120." College-Cram.com offers monthly subscriptions to its ever-growing library, and includes a free-use page to give students and instructors a sampling of the breadth and depth available.

The Smartacus Corporation is a global publisher of e-learning materials for high school, home-school, and college students. It currently operates College-Cram.com, a 24/7 tutorial library and textbook alternative for college students, CafeGenius.com, a tutorial library and study site for high school and home-school students, and the Proximus PDA Study Center, which offers study programs for handheld PDAs. Its products focus on the student, and strive to be useful, useable, and unique.

The Books for Baghdad program, begun by biology professor Safaa Al-Hamdani at Jacksonville State University, has sought to replace textbooks and other educational materials lost or destroyed by the years of economic sanctions and warfare.

Limited shipping funds have kept most of the textbook donations grounded in the U.S. until November, at least. With the fall semester starting, the staff at College-Cram.com decided to act. "Our educational materials are on the Internet, so shipping is not an issue," said Jack Robinson, director of business development. "We were concerned about Internet access and wanted to find out if they would even be interested. We were directed to Prof. Mohammed Al-Ani in Baghdad, whose enthusiastic response was very encouraging. They have over 20,000 students and want to make our library available through their Internet center. "

"We are really excited about contributing to this worthy cause," remarked company vice president Rudy Lopes. "Of course we would have liked to sell the $100,000 worth of subscriptions we gave them, but we felt the impact on these students' education outweighed any financial considerations. Would we do it again? Definitely."

College-Cram.com, operated by The Smartacus Corporation, provides college students a 24/7 tutorial library covering the core concepts of the basic college curriculum at a fraction of the cost of a textbook. College-Cram.com allows students to study what they need, when they need it, all for only $10 per month or $30 per semester. The College-Cram.com library provides over 350 study modules for math, science, business, and foreign language with more in production. The two-year-old company is part of the Tech Fort Worth business incubator and is seeking funding to expand product development and marketing.

"It is important to educate students on the importance of or political process, and the first step is registering to vote. The year 2004 will be the first election for most college students and College-Cram.com is pleased to partner with Rock the Vote in their college campus initiative," said company president Brian Shannon. The Rock the Vote web initiative is the first ever movement to deliver voter registration to millions of young Americans in 2004.

The Rock the Vote organization was founded in 1990 and, is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to ensuring that young people take advantage of their right to vote.

College-Cram.com, operated by The Smartacus Corporation, provides college students a 24/7 tutorial library covering the core concepts of the basic college curriculum at a fraction of the cost of a textbook. College-cram.com allows students to study what they need, when they need it, all for only $10.00 a month or $30.00 a semester. The College-Cram.com library provides over 350 study modules for math, science, business, and foreign language with more in production.

The company is currently seeking investments.

Textbook prices have risen to the point where students are looking for better alternatives to advance their studies," said company president Brian Shannon. College-cram allows them to study what they need, when they need it, all for only $10.00 a month or $40.00 a semester. The College-Cram.com library provides over 320 study modules for math, science, business, and foreign language with more in production.

Earlier this year, The Smartacus Corporation launched www.College-Cram.com with free registration for the Spring semester. Since then more than 925 students took advantage of the free registration. "We were very encouraged by student response," said Jack Robinson, Director of Business Development.

The Smartacus Corporation is a developer of premier e-learning products to enhance students' earning power through improved learning. The company designs multimedia, distributed via the Internet and CD-ROM that are teaching tools for the higher education market. The focus is on technology products that are useful, usable, and unique.The company is currently seeking investments.

Earlier this year, The Smartacus Corporation opened www.College-Cram.com (a Web site for students) with free registration providing access through May. Since then more than 800 students have taken advantage of the free registration, which provides nearly 300 study modules for math, science, business, and foreign language.

"We are very encouraged by student response," said Jack Robinson, Director of Business Development. Rudy Lopes, Chief Information Officer, added "It is fun to see students from the same school signing up and running the same study modules within a few minutes of each other. You just know they are sharing their positive experiences."

The Smartacus Corporation is a developer of premier e-learning products to enhance students' earning power through improved learning. The company designs multimedia, distributed via the Internet and CD-ROM that are teaching tools for the higher education market. The focus is on technology products that are useful, usable, and unique.

The company has recently begun discussions with venture capital firms.