[LIBRARYDIR] Chegg and plagiarism

[Heath Hayden]

Yes, that is the crux of the issue. I will have to learn a little more, but my understanding is faculty can’t determine if a student is getting the answers from Chegg or if they are posting. One of the Physics faculty made an account and saw a lot of their department’s work posted. Several of the Physics faculty are upset about their work being posted and that students are cheating, but when something has finite answers it’s hard to claim plagiarism.

Sounds like emphasizing academic honesty policy and making it more clear in the syllabus might be a good route to take, as well as some plagiarism workshops with students. And using the BIT team could also work. I worry that faculty, who are already putting in a lot of time during pandemic times, will feel the need to put in additional time rooting out plagiarism in the Chegg platform, which may or may not have accurate data on users.

Thank you for this information!

Heath Ray Hayden, MLIS, MA
Pronouns: they/them/their
Interim Dean, Library & eLearning
Bellevue College
Library Media Center | D260H
3000 Landerholm Circle SE
Bellevue, WA 98007-6484
Phone: (425) 564-3133
[signature_1248322587] Chat with me on Teams!<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=Heath.Hayden@bellevuecollege.edu>



From: LIBRARYDIR <librarydir-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> on behalf of Howard Fuller via LIBRARYDIR <librarydir at lists.ctc.edu>
Reply-To: WACTC Library Directors <librarydir at lists.ctc.edu>
Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2021 at 8:55 AM
To: 'WACTC Library Directors' <librarydir at lists.ctc.edu>
Cc: Howard Fuller <hfuller at whatcom.edu>
Subject: Re: [LIBRARYDIR] Chegg and plagiarism

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Heath,

Sorry you’re having this who-ha. I’ve not heard of this issue….yet (sigh).  If I understand your question, students are posting to Chegg, so students are violating school policy (academic integrity perhaps). Is that correct? If so, is this an issue that might include Bellevue’s BIT team? Also, use the below form to remove items from Chegg. But the supply chain seems to be  student behavior that will need to be addressed.

Howard

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Subject: [LIBRARYDIR] Chegg and plagiarism


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Hello:

I am having a second meeting today with our Science division faculty who have been raising concerns about Chegg and students using it to (a) post mathematical/scientific problems/tests/quizzes/homework and/or (b) find answers posted by prior students.

Our faculty are understandably in distress about this and have spoken with the librarians in spring 2019. Our suggestions at the time: come up with other means to have students explain the answer to you (or how they arrived at that answer, process), work with faculty professional development group and/or administration to put together some sessions to talk about this and raise awareness.

The Science faculty feel CHEGG is violating copyright, due to it being their work and content being posted to a publicly accessible site (site does require a login).

Are any other campuses dealing with this issue? The primary concerns here are that their problem sets/content is getting out there and published and that students are cheating. They can’t keep pace with coming up with new problems/content every quarter. I was able to find a copyright infringement form<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.chegg.com%2Fa%2Fp%2Fcopyright%2Fchipro-form.pdf&data=04%7C01%7Cheath.hayden%40bellevuecollege.edu%7C916775f3416a4fde734508d8c2e45605%7Cf94c251c1347422eb3ea8ac56befd6cb%7C0%7C0%7C637473633246824510%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=C3rmJZy3%2BvIl1tZ6pCCPdTq%2Fh4lN5kEngyIJ600I%2FKQ%3D&reserved=0>, but asking the library directors if there are other avenues to explore. We can ramp up plagiarism instruction with those classes and we can seek out PD opportunities to raise awareness, but are there other options?

Thanks, all!

Heath Ray Hayden, MLIS, MA
Pronouns: they/them/their
Interim Dean, Library & eLearning
Bellevue College
Library Media Center | D260H
3000 Landerholm Circle SE
Bellevue, WA 98007-6484
Phone: (425) 564-3133
[signature_1988731361] Chat with me on Teams!<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=Heath.Hayden@bellevuecollege.edu>


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