From AnnArbor.com from a few days ago, “University of Michigan students can now gamble on their grades online.” Basically, it’s a program from a web site called Ultrinsic that enables bets on grades. Here’s a paragraph from the annabor.com piece:
Ultrinsic CEO Steven Wolf, 27, said for students to earn cash, they have to register and upload their schedules to grant the site access to school records. The site calculates the odds based on the student’s college history and available information on the difficulty of the class, among other factors. The student then decides which bet to place. Bets are capped at $25 and increase with use.
“If you’re a B student who bets to get an A, you’ll probably double your money,” Wolf said.
I’m a skeptic about this being something that helps students. And as far as I’m concerned, it’s going to end up being another excuse as to why I have to give students a certain grade.
My only real concern is betting on the downside, i.e. short-selling your grades, which would create a financial incentive for students to underperform akin to point-shaving in sports. But as long as students are restricted to betting on the upside, while I don’t think it’s particularly helpful, I don’t think it’s necessarily bad.