Just before the stressful and crucial time of course selection, the online forum Westview Compass made its grand debut on Jan. 5. What started as an AP Government project has grown into a tool for students to navigate through course selections and plan for their coming years at Westview.  Although Westview offers a variety of courses that give brief descriptions, oftentimes, students want more information on how to prepare for a class, the workload to expect, and any other preparation needed. Westview Compass aims to provide that.

When faced with the AP Gov. class assignment to create something for the community, project leader David He (12) and his 8 other group members, thought back to the times when he was asked for course recommendations. 

“I provided a lot of advice to friends around campus,” He said. “I have a younger brother, so I know a lot of underclassmen, and they ask about which classes they should choose to best prepare for college or if I have any classes that I definitely recommend. Although counselors can also provide some advice regarding [classes], I think that student perspectives are very valuable for people.” 

According to He, one of the website’s central focuses is giving insight into courses for students who don’t have upperclassmen connections.

“Having a freely available student perspective through the use of a website where people can exchange information is really helpful,” He said. “This is really beneficial for the incoming eighth-grade students, the rising freshmen. Now, they can have access to an online platform where they’re able to gain feedback and better choose their classes and then prepare for them.” 

The website was designed with accessibility in mind, allowing users to filter by class or teacher, and also input their own reviews. 

“For the website, we wanted to make it so it’s easily usable,” He said. “People fill out a form with the teacher and also the class. Then on the website, you can organize by teacher or class so students can easily find the information they want.” 

According to group member Serena Lee (12), the group members wanted to help lessen the stress when students were faced with selecting courses. 

“To have an entire four-year plan, and having that ready within a five-day period is really stressful for a lot of students,” Lee said. “We all know this from personal experience too. When I first came to Westview, I didn’t know what to expect, [primarily] because I transferred in my junior year.” 

The foundation of Westview Compass was built off every member having their own experiences in needing help navigating through courses. 

“We took those memories of having stress in our experiences to help people who are doing it in the future,” Lee said. 

Although the website itself does not need constant maintenance, the group members still monitor and review every post before making it public. 

“When you send in the information you wrote, because we want to prevent noninformative reviews, the moderators look at every post,” He said. “Everyone who posts must leave their IDs along with the form, which is completely anonymized [when published]. It helps us confirm that an actual Westview student created the review.” 

Even though the website is published and running, He said the hardest part will be to promote the project and collect reviews on every class. 

“I know this is a resource that [every student] can use, but we have to find a way to actually bring this information to everyone,” He said. “In addition to that problem, we need to get enough responses for this website to be useful. We want a variety of [feedback] on all the classes around campus, as many students have many different views.” 

Starting from a school project, Westview Compass has slowly started to expand into a database where the Westview student body can support each other’s success. As of Jan. 20th, the website has received and published 44 reviews, representing all the UC A-G sections. 

“The most important factor in making this project successful is having a community that’s investing in helping each other,” Lee said. “The people who leave reviews are helping other people in the future. When someone takes the time to write a review, they’re not only thinking about themselves, they’re thinking about future members of their community. I think keeping that spirit and taking advantage of that will help make it more successful.” 

He hopes this website will continue to grow even after the group members have graduated. 

“This website does require moderation to ensure forms are accurate and constructive, however, we haven’t decided succession just yet,” He said. “As of right now, we’re focusing on the main issue of just growing it to ensure people begin to know about it. But once we reach that point, we’ll definitely consider the idea of succession for underclassmen and passing it on to other people. We do hope that even though we are gone, the website is going to stay.”