Question

Does anyone think that people are re-posting assignment questions verbatim here? What are the implications of this for OpenStudy and for the users that do it?

Answer 1

Right, so there are a few different issues in play here.

First, if we have reasonable proof that the person is taking a graded exam that isn't supposed to be open-book, we will usually shut them down. It's our policy to support schools in enforcing their Academic Honor Code. That is an obvious violation we don't see too often.

Second, some publishers have issues with their content being reposted verbatim. This is a blatant copyright issue, and we regularly get served with DCMA takedown requests for that content. However, we can't really enforce against that proactively.

Third, we have the re-posting of typical homework questions. This last one probably makes up a majority of the questions we see on the site. So, obviously, it's the one that gets the most discussion.

The long-in-short version of the whole deal is this: We don't have problems with a student starting the conversation about something they don't understand by posting the homework problem (barring the first two scenarios, of course) so long as the interaction that results out of that post is actual learning instead of someone just getting free answers. Our goal is to be an online, free tutoring resource - and the fact of the matter is that this is how the constructive exchange between student and tutor always start - online or not.

Answer 2

Thanks for the detailed response. And I hear and agree with your approach to questions of the third type, it makes sense to support the reaching out by the student to start an instructive dialog. I guess one could coach those answering to prompt the questioner to provide more insight into their metacognitive learning process and try to describe where it has broken down.

Answer 3

Yes, that's our general approach. Additionally, we're going to be providing more means of aiding that process over the next several months. Keep your eyes open. ;)

Answer 4

It always makes me sad when I see all of those people who really don't care about how the person got the answer, and how they *just* want it answered.
I'm not the best explainer in the world, but I normally try to explain things to the best of my ability, and when I get a response like "thats okay, i just need it answered"... It makes me wonder.

Answer 5

Thanks for sharing Alf3mb, the potential for this to be a disincentive to question answerers is one of the negative implications that I have been thinking about.

Answer 6

I wish there was a specific box where the user could input what they already know, as well as the question. I know that a lot of the times for me, I don't know how to do the problem, but I know some information that is pertinent and will help me out. I will post my question, and post what I know, and hopefully someone will be able to help me piece together what I know and do not know. I feel like if there was an input box where the user could say what information he/she finds relevant, then the person responding will be able to help them more, rather than just giving the answer.

I know a lot of children (err, people in lower math courses) will post questions verbatim. People will answer those questions solely for the purpose of getting medals. I don't really like that. I come on to openstudy to ask questions to other people, and respond to other peoples question, in hopes that they will help me back at a later time.

I feel like some children just use this service to get answers. I'm sure you can't really do anything about it, but I wish you could!

Also, do y'all run scripts to check if a question is taken from a website/textbook. I have a feeling that if you look at the users who ask a lot of questions, give a lot of medals, but don't answer others questions will have a lot of plagiarism!