Is Course Hero Cheating And Can You Get Caught
Is Course Hero cheating or not? This question is debated in various academic settings with most teachers usually against the use of these platforms while students insist on the usefulness of the platform.
While the platform itself enables students to gain access to resources they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to acquire, some students tend to abuse it, leading to academic integrity concerns from institutions.
The resulting dilemma is students aren’t sure in most instances whether the use of the platform is constitutes cheating or not. While the platform itself automatically generates a random username for its customers, some students still fear being identified on Course Hero or in the worse case, Course Hero notifying their schools.
This article will provide some insight into whether using Course Hero can be seen as cheating as well as the benefits such platforms provide.
Let’s begin by taking a look at what constitutes cheating from the perspectives of academic institutions.
What Constitutes Cheating In School
Education and assessment go hand in hand and while teachers try their best to educate their students, cheating severely undermines the teacher’s ability to honestly assess their students’ know-how and capabilities.
A certificate from any academic institution means the institution confidently believes they have trained the student in their respective subject area and properly assessed them to confirm their knowledge.
This makes cheating to pass any form of assessment intolerable to all educational institutions and a violation punishable by suspension or in the worst case, expulsion.
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– Copying From Another Student
This involves copying assignments, quizzes, or examinations from other students without the permission of the instructor.
While group work requires participants to leverage their expertise and knowledge to deliver on assignments or any other forms of academic deliverables, copying from other students on individual deliverables or assignments is punishable by the respective instructor.
The student in this case doesn’t necessarily need to be part of your school for a student to be guilty of cheating. Most academic institutions now leverage plagiarism checkers to ensure that academic deliverables aren’t sourced from other sources.
– Allowing Other Students To Copy From You
While some would believe the student shouldn’t be penalized for simply helping out a classmate, allowing another student to copy from you also constitutes cheating.
This can be on an assignment, quiz, or even examination. Being a party to cheating still constitutes a breach of academic integrity and can be punishable by suspension.
– Using Materials Without Permission During Test
This involves using academic resources like notes, stickers, textbooks, and formula lists without the permission of the instructor during a test. In certain situations, the instructor would permit the use of some resources during testing.
However, most test environments do not permit the use of any resources, and students caught with these could face disciplinary actions.
– Collaborating On A Test Without Permission
While group practical and theoretical work is common in education, collaborating on individual tests is not permitted in most instances. Collaborating on assignments can be seen as cheating especially when students present similar answers that could be flagged by plagiarism checkers.
That said, students are encouraged to form study groups to help each other better understand concepts taught in class.
– 3rd-Party Answering An Assignment
Allowing a 3rd-party to answer your assignment can be considered cheating and any students caught in this act can be penalized severely. Students should endeavor to attempt their assignments and any other resources available to enable them better understand concepts they have issues with.
Assignments are given to students to enable them to do individual research and gain a better understanding of the concepts taught in class.
– Copying From Online Source
Copying from online sources is another form of cheating punishable by the cancellation of paper, or suspension. With online platforms like Course Hero readily available, students are sometimes tempted to cover information directly from these platforms for submission.
Through the patronage of plagiarism checkers, most academic institutions can access this information and flag students for plagiarism. It is therefore advisable to paraphrase such information before delivery.
Is Course Hero Cheating
Depending on how it is used, Course Hero as a study resource to enhance understanding is not considered cheating. However, simply turning in available resources as academic deliverables can be considered cheating as content crawlers including plagiarism checkers are allowed by Course Hero to scan available content to identify any attempts at cheating.
While Course Hero and other online student resource platforms are effective in providing students with the necessary resources, some students tend to use them in a manner for which they were unintended.
Resources available are meant to help students gain a better understanding of relevant topics in their subject area. Instructors available on the platform also serve to aid students to better understand any concepts they want to without the need to go out and physically find an instructor to provide the necessary explanation.
That said, some students who do not use Course Hero in this manner tend to simply submit available content or pay instructors to solve their assignments. This has led to the general debate around these platforms and how they encourage cheating unintentionally.
When Is Course Hero Considered Cheating
While using the resources available on Course Hero to supplement your lessons does not constitute cheating, there are various ways some students unethically use the platform.
– Paying A Tutor To Do Your Assignment
Tutors on Course Hero are available to help students gain a better understanding of concepts they do not understand. That said, some students intentionally pay tutors to do their assignments and then submit them to their instructors as their own.
This is considered cheating and students caught in the act would be penalized by the academic institution.
– School Bans The Use Of Course Hero
Knowing the desire to misuse the platform, some educational institutions outright ban their students’ use of Course Hero. While the school may not be able to directly track students activities on the platform or be notified by Course Hero when a student registers, some instructors resort to registering as instructors on these platforms and then accepting any such assignment requests only to catch students who submit the teacher’s answer as their assignment.
– Direct Copy-Pasting
Some students simply copy answers available on Course Hero only to submit them as their assignments without making any changes. Unfortunately, educational institutions can identify this approach of cheating as most premium plagiarism checkers can compare academic submissions against content available on platforms like Course Hero.
It is recommended that students use the resources available on Course Hero to supplement their studies and enhance their knowledge.
When Is Course Hero Not Considered Cheating
Course Hero, when leveraged ethically becomes an invaluable tool to students looking to gain a better understanding or even expand their knowledge.
– Permitted By School
While some educational institutions outright ban the use of Course Hero by their students, some permit the use of the platform within ethical boundaries. Students, therefore, need to ensure that their respective academic institutions permit the use of these platforms before signing up.
Usage should also be within ethical limitations as students can be penalized for abusing these platforms in their academics.
– Use As A Guide
Course Hero should be used as a guide when studying. While students may find some concepts difficult to understand, resources and explanations of these may be available on Course Hero.
With notes, articles, videos, and other resources sourced through the huge community of students and teachers, finding answers to questions or concepts you have challenges with becomes easy.
Course Hero enables students to access this information at the convenience of their homes and gain a better understanding of otherwise confusing topics.
– Alternative Answers
Though this point is debated, Course Hero can be used to verify the answers presented in an assignment. Students who would like to verify the answers they provided in their assignments can use Course Hero to find alternative approaches to solving the problem.
That said, it is recommended that students only use Course Hero this way in situations where they have already submitted their assignments and would like to identify other approaches to the solution.
– Need Explanation
Student groups available in Course Hero can be leveraged to gain the necessary help from peers when students have a hard time understanding certain concepts. With multiple groups available on these platforms, students can share information and lesson notes on any particular topic.
– Cite References
Depending on the quality, resources available on Course Hero can be cited as references in student deliverables. As a show of honesty, any referenced resources should be properly cited in student assignments.
That said, students should ensure that their educational institutions permit the use of resources available on Course Hero before citing these.
– Mock Test
Students can leverage questions available on the platform to gain some insight into the various forms of questions available usually asked on any particular subject matter.
Can You Get Caught Using Course Hero
Yes. Copy-pasted information from Course Hero can easily be identified by plagiarism checkers which crawl Course Hero. It is advisable to use Course Hero as a resource and paraphrasing should be used when submitting Course Hero content as your own.
Most academic institutions now leverage some form of premium plagiarism tools to detect cheating. Plagiarism checkers like UniCheck and Turnitin can crawl Course Hero content and flag any plagiarized content.
According to Course Hero’s Honor code, the platform encourages content monitoring tools to crawl their materials making it easy for plagiarism checkers to identify and flag any student content copied from the platform.
Can Course Hero Get You In Trouble
Depending on how it is used and the educational institution’s regulations, students can get into trouble if the school doesn’t permit the use of Course Hero, the student was flagged by plagiarism checkers for copy-pasting Course Hero content or caught posting lesson content on Course Hero.
Because educational institutions are unable to verify how students use Course Hero, most resort to outright banning of the platform. While it may sound extreme, these institutions simply aim to protect the academic integrity of their school and students.
Students caught breaching these rules could face disciplinary actions for breaching academic integrity. Course Hero should only be used if permitted by the academic institution and even then, content should be used ethically.
Does Course Hero Give Correct Answers
While answers on Course Hero are mostly reliable, some answers provided by freelancers who may or may not be experts in the field and students looking to unlock free usage can be unreliable.
Unfortunately, Course Hero is unable to verify the correctness of any provided answer until users have indicated as such. This means a wrong answer may not be detected until a student has submitted and has been marked down.
To ensure that instructors provide the right answers, Course Hero instructors are only paid on confirmation of the quality of answers they provided by the students.
Is Course Hero Safe
With 24 million students and instructors on the platform with no relevant safety incidence, Course Hero is one of the largest community-sourced educational resource providers. Information available on the platform is sourced by the community of instructors and students and made available to both free and premium users.
Course Hero also automatically generates a random username for students to enable anonymity on the platform. Student information is kept confidential and Course Hero encourages students to abide by their respective institution’s code of academic integrity and honor code while using their services.
Is Course Hero Legal
Yes, resources available on Course Hero are community-sourced and checked for plagiarism. While Course Hero is a legal entity that provides materials geared toward supplementing learning, any unethical misuse may lead to severe consequences from your academic institution
Can You Get In Trouble For Uploading To Course Hero
Yes. While the student retains the rights of ownership to any of their assignments, uploading such information to Course Hero could land them in trouble if it violates copyright laws or their educational institution’s academic integrity policies.
Students sometimes get tempted to upload their assignments on Course Hero to gain the necessary credits to unlock documents. This can lead to students uploading any available content including notes and assignments on these platforms.
While uploading notes may not cause any trouble for the student, ungraded assignments could easily be detected and flagged by premium plagiarism checkers leading to disciplinary actions from school.
