ThinkEssay.com is basically the proof-of-concept for Scriptovia. Developed in early 2005, it aims to allow students to learn from each other’s essays in an online community atmosphere. The idea was to create a feature limited website with no marketing budget to see how users would interact with the concept. What we ended up with was a relatively active and excited community. Today ThinkEssay has over 5,100 members and 400 essays.

What have we learned from ThinkEssay?
Well so far we have not received any complaints from teachers or have heard of anybody using the website for plagiarism. Instead we have found that students are appreciative of the service and are excited to use it. See some of the comments below from real ThinkEssay members:

“Very informative, was able to use a few of these to springboard my own essay about the same topic. Great work!”
-giddyupzil
“This site has amazing potential. Im definitely going 2 refer all my friends”
-aussie-boy
“Thanks to the writer of this essay. It really helped clear up some of the questions I had about the book.”
-Chris

Along with the favorable feedback and comments from students, we received some kudos from third parties as well. In 2006, ThinkEssay was an Official Honoree of the famous Webby Awards.

What’s different about Scriptovia?
Scriptovia will be different from ThinkEssay in two ways. 1) Scriptovia will have a larger scope, instead of focusing only on essays we are focusing on all schoolwork, including lab reports, notes, vocabulary lists, study guides, presentations etc. 2) Scriptovia will have a more comprehensive feature set. ThinkEssay basically had three features: you could upload an essay, read an essay, and comment on an essay. Scriptovia will have many more features. Look for posts beginning with “feature” for more information on individual features.

What is going to happen to ThinkEssay?
After we launch Scriptovia into BETA ThinkEssay will no longer exist. When you go to www.thinkessay.com you will automatically be redirected to Scriptovia.com. All the essays on ThinkEssay will automatically be transferred to Scriptovia. Anybody that has a ThinkEssay membership will automatically have a Scriptovia membership with their respective essays already uploaded to Scriptovia. Just login to Scriptovia with your ThinkEssay username and password!

Find out more about the Webby Awards here: How the Webbys Work