MSU students’ website helps organize course calendars

By Stephen Brooks | Originally Published: 09/15/11 7:53pm | No comments

For the organized students who spend hours mapping out every critical date of the semester in calendars to the ones that still don’t know when their first exam is, help has arrived in the form of a new website created by a team of MSU students.

At the newly launched website, coursecoffee.com, students can digitally upload their syllabi and automatically have a personalized calendar created with all of their important dates for the semester.

“As a student, I would organize my course assignments into one calendar, and I was frustrated with how long it took,” international relations senior Chris Roszell said.

“I always thought that would be cool if a program could do that.”

Roszell created the free website, which launched in August, with two MSU doctoral students and an MSU alumnus.

The website also has a book search function to help students find the best deals on textbooks.

It has an affiliate program with companies such as Amazon.com, co-founder and doctoral student Cheng Yuan said.

“Students need to input their course name, and we’ll (search) their textbook information across the Internet and find the best book deal,” he said.

The website currently is available to MSU and University of Michigan students, but Roszell said he hopes for expansion.

“We want to turn this into a real company … and expand and become a national website, maybe even international,” he said.

The original idea for the site came in January, but development didn’t begin until June, Roszell said.

He believes the website can serve as a valuable tool.

“You’re going to have more free time and (be) more organized — it’s a win-win,” he said.

Although coursecoffee.com still is in its beginning stages, a free website offering organizational capabilities already has the interest of some students.

“I think it (would be) really helpful, especially for people who aren’t as organized,” child development senior Danielle Cowper said.

Cowper considers herself an organized person, but said she would use the site to save time.

“It’s just easier then doing it yourself,” she said.

Roszell is hoping as the word spreads about the website, it can turn into a profitable business in the future, he said.

“We’re hoping that we can build enough users to attract investments,” Roszell said.

“We’re hoping we can build some investment, hopefully have some programmers full-time and maybe take it out to California and attract those big-shot venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.”