"I read [the errors] to them and cautioned them that based on that sample, these things are potentially unreliable," Davis says.

Berman says Versity is working to improve the notes' quality. "We've set up an auditing department to improve the consistency and quality of the notes," he says.

Ideally, Berman says, Versity will start partnerships with professors and colleges. The professors could use the Web sites to post information, and they or their assistants could correct problems in the students' notes, Berman says.

Davis says that faculty cooperation with Versity was not out of the question, but would not be desirable, either. "On the one hand, I don't want to give my blessing to this operation, and on the other hand I really hate to see misinformation given to students. I don't know what I would do if I were invited. I don't like the idea of endorsing it," Davis says.

William L. Fash, Bowditch Professor of Central American and Mexican Archaeology and Ethnology, called the notes for his classes posted on the Versity site "poor."

"I think these notes are essentially Cliff Notes, and you get what you pay for," Fash says. Fash teaches Foreign Cultures 34, "Mesoamerican Civilations."

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles says he sympathizes with the instructors' frustration, but was not worried about misinformation.