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[MReardon]

This is a question posted in the interactive session at the 2009 CAI conference...... please answer, multiple view welcome:


there are sites that are posting course materials, notes, exam questions, basically anything that is related to a certain course.

The user can search by institution and course and access all material available....to what degree does this violate the rights of the professors (intellectual property rights) as they may or may not know that the site even exists?

Is there a difference IF THEY DO KNOW? perhaps give consent to access the material?

We are interested in where the line should be drawn...or if ALL of the aforementioned would be considered cheating regardless....what role does the consent of the professor play in determining the degree of infringement?

[Teddifish]

Originally Posted by MReardon

This is a question posted in the interactive session at the 2009 CAI conference...... please answer, multiple view welcome:


there are sites that are posting course materials, notes, exam questions, basically anything that is related to a certain course.

The user can search by institution and course and access all material available....to what degree does this violate the rights of the professors (intellectual property rights) as they may or may not know that the site even exists?

Is there a difference IF THEY DO KNOW? perhaps give consent to access the material?

We are interested in where the line should be drawn...or if ALL of the aforementioned would be considered cheating regardless....what role does the consent of the professor play in determining the degree of infringement?

I think you've hit on exactly the right question--it matters a great deal whether or not the professors are aware that this material is available, and whether they give their consent for their work to be used in this way.

The first question is more to the point of academic integrity. From my perspective (and I know this is somewhat controversial) the ideal resolution to this situation is that professors understand that these sites exist and then use them as resource materials. This, ultimately, benefits students most, as they can practice the very necessary skills of sorting through voluminous information to find what is most useful and relevant, and then applying it in smart ways.

The second question is more about the right to control one's own writing and the use that is made of it. I do think that it is unethical and potentially illegal (in terms of copyright) to take the work of professors and post it without their consent. That said, I think we also have to remember that tests and assignments have been collected and used in this way for as long as any of us can remember. What's new is simply the way that they are collected and shared, so whether we agree about the rightness or wrongness becomes less important than recognizing that it happens and trying to make the best of it.

That's not to say that we can't try to get things taken down. Rather I mean to suggest that whether the online sites exist or not, I think we have to proceed with the understanding that any time work leaves our immediate control, it's out there and students may have access to it.

I should have added a bit about personal experience: In both my MA and PhD programs, we had huge folders full of everything about the comprehensive exams that had been collected throughout the previous years of the programs and passed down from year to year. They weren't a secret at all--the professors in the programs would talk about "the binder" and suggest things to put in them. They were treasure troves of information that included prior years' questions, study guides that had been put together by students, secondary sources and supplementary materials--everything you need. When I look back on it, I think they could have been an amazing course of study all by themselves.

No professor that I know of ever objected to them because they knew we were using them to become familiar with both the processes (by looking at old test questions) and the materials. From my perspective now, however, the two things that made these repositories (because that's what they were) a positive thing rather than a negative were the transparency of them and the use to what they were put. It's hard to argue with the utility of that kind of in-depth information or students who try to know as much as possible in advance of the exam. The same thing is true, I think, for the online sites. If students take that information and try to learn as much as possible from it, ultimately, everyone wins. We (as educators) just have to be aware that they are there, and learn to make smart use of them.