Studyhall

Studyhall was an online education startup based in Washington, DC, United States, and founded by Cornell and Washington University School of Law graduate Ross Blankenship in 2012. The company launched as a peer-to-peer learning platform whose claimed goal was to change higher education by providing a virtual space in which students could collaborate. Studyhall was active at Arizona State University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California – Berkeley, University of California – Davis, University of California – Los Angeles, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Features
Students could create Studyhall.com accounts by providing the platform with their .edu email addresses. Studyhall members would add their classes to their profile each semester, and were connected to other students in the same courses. Other student groups were also able to communicate with Studyhall.com’s group forum pages. Students were notified of other members’ activity on the website through updates on their account homepage.

Studyhall.com accounts had a word processing feature for members to record, share, and organize class notes. Each account had video-chat capability for interactive study sessions, in which notes could be shared between two members on a collaborative “whiteboard.”

History
Studyhall.com officially launched in September 2012 at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, where the company was a Startup Battlefield Finalist.

The company soon transitioned to a more classic offer of private tutoring. The original website ceased operations in 2020. A company named StudyHall by the same founder still exists, but is now specialized in helping companies hire young graduates.