Nb is an annotation tool that lets students and faculty collaboratively annotate arbitrary PDF files online. More specifically, some of the high-level functionality includes the ability for a student to select a portion of the text to highlight it for importance, mark it as confusing, or begin forum-type discussion on it in the margin. The discussion typically begins with a student asking a question on which students and staff post their responses or on which other students vote in order to show that they share the same confusion and to prioritize the question for staff. Nb is an academic tool currently used in roughly 25 classes at 6 universities.

“Through SuperUROP, I want to gain more developmental experience in full-stack web development and create a useful tool to improve student learning and student-teacher communication. For preparation, I’ve done multiple internships in web development and I am registered to take Courses 6.170 (Software Studio) and 6.831 (User Interface Design and Implementation) during the course of this SuperUROP. I hope to publish a paper by the end of SuperUROP and to create a fully functional improved prototype of NB.”