Expert TA Blog

Higher education is constantly evolving through the use of the World Wide Web.  A classroom is no longer limited to a physical location.  In the same way, homework is no longer limited to a piece of paper.  There are countless advantages to internet technology aiding the teaching and learning processes, but there are also challenges as a result.  One of biggest challenges deals with academic integrity.  For students assigned online physics homework, there are many public-facing websites where textbook solutions are freely shared and available.  Most of these sites will pay for ad placement targeting students on Facebook and social media sites.  Sites like Chegg.com have optimized search engines to act as a catalog for all printed textbook questions, so it only takes a student a few seconds to find a solution to their homework problem.  This becomes a distraction at the detriment of the student who no longer gets the practice they need to be successful.

Authors:

Jeremy Morton, Ph.D., CEO and Founder, The Expert TA
David Pritchard, Ph.D., Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Although many people claim that cheating on college campuses has drastically increased, a report by the Boston Globe shows that the rate of students who admit to cheating has actually remained steady since the first study was done in 1963. We believe that most students today, like those in the 1960s, want to walk away from a class having learned the material and knowing they earned their grade.

In higher education, chances are you’ve heard or dealt with issues of academic integrity. Some claim that cheating is now such a significant issue that they can no longer assign value to homework. It is true that the availability of solutions and the ease at which students can share answers online have drastically altered the way instructors must approach class assignments.