Hi Friends, I run a website where students can post their homework and experts can charge them and do the homework. The site does not charges anything to the students but just charges a monthly fee to the experts.There are a lot of websites already doing this (e.g. www.tutornation.com ), but I am just worried about the legal issues. Sometimes students post final year projects as well and the experts do that on their behalf which the university consider as cheating. So, can the website get into some sort of trouble for this??? Because the website can be deemed as a cheating medium .. Your expert views would be highly appreciated. Thanks
Ask yourself. Is it legal in Canada education system to have someone do your homework and project for you ? I thought the whole purpose of education and doing your own homework and project is so that you can 'learn' and you can be gauged as to how well you understand the subject and your knowledge. If others are allowed to do them for you then one might as well not bother to attend school or learn. It is probably best to contact your Education Ministry to see the legality of what you are doing.
Legal problems, not that I can see. However, the school/college/university in question may well penalise the student if they think they've been cheating. Edit: I just caught eddy2099's reply. In terms of academic regulation probably not. But academic regulations don't tend to be enshrined in law, therefore such practices are not really illegal.
Whether it's legal or not, I don't think it's something should be offered. These kids will be leading the world some day, and paying others to do their work isn't the right thing to do.
There are no legal issue that I am aware of. It is more an ethical issue. As CB stated, if they are caught, the students could be in trouble and in some schools, they could be expelled from the school. In many colleges, they may be kicked out for good and not allowed to return. I know my college had a zero tolerance when it came to cheating.
Just make sure you have every one of your students agree to some sort of policy or TOS that states that you cannot publicly post the homework done anywhere. This will eliminate the issue of blaming your organization for any issues like children claiming it was work found posted around places and then go about the drama of copying work and etc.
Hi Friends, Thanks for the good points on legal issues... Regarding ethical issues, I think thats a whole new topic. I totally understand that it's not good when someone is doing the homework for the student and curbing his/her knowledge. But you also need to understand that everybody is not rich enough to pay for private tutions or help. And in many cases the students seek for help. There are times when the student has done 90% of the project but he's not able to finish it to execution and not getting enough help from the professors/assistants. Even forums don't help at that time due to the complexity and specialization of the topic. So if some expert is helping this guy by spending time, I think he's very rightful to charge for that and at the end the student learns a lot as well. Anyways, that's just my 2 cents
There are a couple legal issues I would be concerned with. 1. Many schools use test from books or testing companies. Much of that material is protected by copyright. Students do not have any right to post those copyrighted tests and homework. Likewise, you would have no right to base a business on someone else's copyrighted materials. 2. I am not sure if it would be illegal to help someone cheat on a test or homework. That would be a tricky question. However, I could easily make a case how your site is assisting in a fraud on the school. If it was a private school a fraud scandal could potentially be very costly in lost tuition. They might have a good case that you participated in a fraud by helping people cheat. I don't think there is great likelihood, but it is certainly possible. Here is a little real life example to help guide you: "A Dallas-area test-prep company accused of using unauthorized copies of college entrance exams to give students an advantage avoided a federal lawsuit Tuesday by agreeing to a $1 million settlement." source (I looked for about 10 seconds. I could find you many other cases which say the same thing.)
This is highly unethical, and I suggest against it. It would be much more successful as a homework help site.
I've seen a lot of companies offering research papers for sale but they have a disclaimer that the papers are only for 'research purposes'
Hi Friends, I think we are getting a bit out of scope here: 1. The site is not selling/sharing any kind of copyrighted material like research papers, test papers etc. 2. The site is just a forum where students meet experts .. and all the other exchange material is exchanged between the student and expert through their private emails. 3. The site is infact a help with homework site. I would like to add one more thing here: The universities are encouraging more and more usage of internet and students are given homeworks/tests etc to do on internet that they can do at their own convenience from home etc. These are the main causes why students are getting their work done from third party websites or some third person. If the universities are so concerned about cheating etc, don't you think they should resort back to the old method of teaching where tests etc should be given in front of the instructor etc ???
I think you should just pay someone official (maybe $100) to write up a super official, covers everything Terms of Service page that says in it something along the lines of "We do not condone illegal action and we are not responsible if the solving of your project/ homework is of an illegal matter." This way if some kid every gets seriously screwed you can say "You accepted our ToS"
I think it is you who is missing the point (or changing the facts). First you said it was posted on your site, now you say it it sent through private email. The case and issue I cited to you has nothing to do with selling the copyright materials. It is using them at all. If you are inviting people to post copyright work and the profiting from that posting then you are opening up yourself to liability. Good luck.
This is a very good point. Maybe instead of having experts just do the homework they could offer support on how to do the homework. This way you can also be appealing to parents as a site that offers support to there child on homework.
Help with homework should be fine. Even helping someone with answers is helping them learn. Most Universities don't give credit for homework anyway. At best they make it part of your class participation score which is like 10%
That sounds like a forum that everyone can share. But it has also good and bad effect. In good effect, students can share what they already know. In bad effect, some students will only rely to the possible answers posted in your site and they don't make their own. I think the school have only the right to create a community like this.
BrownTown, I don't think i am missing the point but I guess you are not too used to this "help with homework" sites. This is what usually happens: 1. Student posts a message on say our website like - " I have a .NET Final Project that i need help with" 2. Experts reply to the message like - "I can help you out". 3. Students picks up an expert and they exchange material through their private emails. NOTE this is what i was trying to explain that the site is not selling/sharing copyrighted content. Very good point made .. every system has it's pros and cons. Do you guys think when Facebook/Orkut/MySpace started they had no cons??? Do you guys think those sites were totally ethical??? I will not agree to that ....
Personally I still feel that sites like MySpace are unethical. Facebook covers the job much better, but the fact the kids get raped and murdered because of online predators from MySpace is quite pathetic. Plus a large percentage of accounts on MySpace are usually fraud, or stolen accounts. Back on topic... not everything is ethical, but when you dealing with something like school, sometimes you want reasons for parents to like it too. Maybe offer an option to either have them help you, or do the homework. Then on user accounts, in the UCP (user control panel) a parent could say lock it so that there child can only receive help, then its locked with a different password.
I don't think there is legal issues with helping students with homework. I see alot of homework posted on sites like expert exchange for my comp sci classes. There are legal issues with selling text book solutions though. Selling the solutions could get you pounded with legal fees but in your case it should be acceptable.