Ewhaian (http://ewhaian.com) is the school’s biggest online community that was established in 2001. It has over 100,000 active users of Ewha students and alumnae. After launching the android Ewhaian app in October, extra modifications have been added recently.
Ewhaian has now incorporated a level based access policy for the Employment Garden Board and Exam Garden Board. The Employment Garden Board contains all types of information regarding employment shared by working alumnae and students preparing for employment throughout the school years. Exam Garden Board is for students preparing national examinations such as the bar exam. Since the change of new level based policy, only users with a level 10 ranking or higher can read or write on these boards. The level of a user is determined by how frequently they visited the website or how many posts and comments they wrote, and the number of likes they received.
“Recently, there was an increase of reports on people who deleted their posts as soon as their questions got answered (instead of sharing them),” said the operators of Ewhaian. “Constant reports on users who hurt others’ feelings with posts that are inappropriate in these specific boards and cases of sharing information in these boards with people from other schools were all the more reasons why the level regulation was reinforced.”
The website’s rule is that any information from the two boards are strictly available for Ewha students only.
Also, the lecture evaluations shared in the now-closed website Timetabl (http://timetabl.com/) has been transferred to Ewhaian, in January. Timtabl, which used to provide lecture assessments to university students in the Sinchon area, was shut down on Sept. 11 last year due to continuous misogynistic insults from male users from Yonsei and Sogang University.
“Although we already had a platform for class evaulations, most students preferred to use Timetabl, as we focused more on operating the anonymous community board,” noted the operators. “Since Timetabl’s fall, we renewed the time scheduling system so that it can be accessed by both PC and mobile.”
On top of the data transfer, class evaluation postings are massively increasing due to students who are set on raising their levels through active participation on the website.
Students can also assess each class and professor in specific categories. While Timetabl was a mere commenting board, Ewhaian allows students to rate lectures out of five stars, analyze the professor’s grading preferences, and mark how a professor takes attendance. Also, information on how frequently tests are taken and whether the exams are multiple choice, essay or T/F format are shared on the website along with textbook requirements and team projects.