Question

We have a problem guys... and im sure parents and guardians aren't going to be proud of this.

Answer 1

Take a look at this Email I got today from my online School principal: http://prntscr.com/4ujf8f

Answer 2

Im worried if this will lower the population on OS and will we get introuble for being on here.

Answer 3

so im not public schooled so HAHAHA

Answer 4

this is Virtual School -_-

Answer 5

i cant look Dx i have computer restrictions

Answer 6

Lol

Answer 7

im homeschooled anyways

Answer 8

Im homeschooled and I don't have school computers

Answer 9

@Jasmine456 does this work http://i.imgur.com/EGBbE5D.png

Answer 10

I do My teacher let us borrow this computer

Answer 11

no

Answer 12

This one works better than the one we have ;-;

Answer 13

ill just copy what the email says on here ^_^

Answer 14

thanks ^.^

Answer 15

sorry wron thing

Answer 16

Good morning, Students, Parents, Guardians, and Learning Coaches,

It has been brought to my attention that our teachers have seen a significant uptick in plagiarism incidents by their students. At the beginning of each school year, you are required to sign an Honor Code which describes our rules regarding academic integrity. Plagiarism is defined as the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

The use of sites such as: Open Study, Wiki Answers, Yahoo Answers are prohibited. Should you copy and paste from these sites, our teachers recognize the common language of answers being submitted. Taking the information from these sites and re-wording the information, by simply re-ordering the sentence, is still considered plagiarism.

All of the answers you need for your work can be located within the lessons of our courses. At any time that you don't understand a concept, your teachers are here for you. Attending your Live Lessons each week, or at a minimum watching the recordings are the best ways for you to complete your work, and ask questions on topics you may not understand.

I hope to hear that this message has been heard, and my teachers report a decrease in plagiarism incidents they receive in assignment submissions. Too many plagiarism incidents can lead to not receiving points for an assignment, and go as far as requiring you to take a proctored exam, which you must pass, in order to receive credit for your course.

Sincerely,

Katie Santana

Principal

Answer 17

Look at the second paragraph first sentence mentioning Open Study and how its not to be used.

Answer 18

Omg That doesn't seem fair >:(

Answer 19

im using it anyway, its not like i come on here to cheat, i come on here for help. its my way of getting help since my parents are never home

Answer 20

i guess its like a warning, probably some people are just to lazy to write it themselves, my online school hasn't said that

Answer 21

Thats why i posted this i dont know if they are going to start tracking down people that use these sites cause i dont wanna get introuble for using OS

Answer 22

I'm too young! This isn't fair!

Answer 23

how would they,more than half the people here use fake names

Answer 24

How are they gonna track a poor 13 year old like meh :(

Answer 25

they have to accept,plagiarism can't be stopped so they use plagiarism checks,

Answer 26

@just_one_last_goodbye are u homeschooled or no

Answer 27

Ok, i get what your principal is trying to say is correct but i feel he has chosen the wrong words. He should have said that use of openstudy or any other website for purposes like cheating is prohibited. We our self do not promote Plagiarism /Cheating by any means and have strict rules against it. Every one should be free to access knowledge and information from any wr in this world unless his way is correct. I strongly dissaprove that there is anything wrong in using openstudy for honest study purpose. I think it's a boon for homeschoolers.

Answer 28

@Crissy15 -_- lets think about it the school bored catch people annually that share answers to state tests on social networks and how do they do this.

Answer 29

@natsent06 im in virtual school and in one of the schools that were named, I will not say which one cause i dont want my school to find out who i am nor do i wanna narrow and make it more easier for them to find out by what school i go to.

Answer 30

@Abhisar ^ like i just said not naming my school, but i will say this the majority of the OS population come from those schools.

Answer 31

Yes, i can see the name of your principal.

Answer 32

OpenStudy kinda understands already it's current reputation, that is why we have mods specially from CA (mods whose names end with _CA) as well as others

OpenStudy is meant for students to gain a better understanding in topics that they need help with, Not to copy paste their homework to get answers.

OpenStudy DOES have rules against cheating, if you see someone just wanting answer or giving out answers, please report them as they are breaking the "Anti Cheating Policy"
http://pages.citebite.com/c3n6a1q0a0mvl

Use this opportunity to set a better example of what OpenStudy is *meant* to be.

Answer 33

But at the end, if someone is cheating or copy pasting the answers, i think that is his/her fault and not of any websites. Everybody is responsible for their own act. OS is a great tool for those who are home schooled.

Answer 34

^ true Tbh i only come here to get help and so they can explain how to get the answer and thats why its agaisnt the CoC to give direct answers

Answer 35

but the ignorance of users that give people direct answers has brought this to OS so i understand the schools as well because the state exams are to represent what the students have learned and if the school's teachings are effective and since most kids use this to get direct answers they do horrible on state exams due to they dont know how to find the answers and unable to use any thing that might give hints to answers (including websites or phones). Also I know this because a school almost was closed down because everyone was getting bad scores on the state tests so they gave them a year to pull up the scores if they didn't pull it up the school would be closed down.

Answer 36

oh my, well can't they be warned to not put direct answers, show like an example, step by step, if they do it more than twice ban them for a while?

Answer 37

@crissy15 u think we dont do that we even do suspensions

Answer 38

yea,this is a hard topic to resolve,

Answer 39

OS has been trying to resolve this problem for a long time just been dealing more threatening issues

Answer 40

no comment -_-

Answer 41

Anyways, don't be afraid of using OS if you think you are doing it in a correct way. That's all i can say ryt now.

Answer 42

@Preetha What do you think about this?

Answer 43

Folks, you know the answer better than me. You know the right thing to do. We are here to give explanations, to help you understand and to give you an opportunity to discuss things so that you get a personalized answer. We do not condone cheating.
So come, ask for help, ask for explanations, and when you understand it - go tackle your assignments.
OpenStudy is there to help you when you have no one else to turn to. But the important word is help. We want you to learn how to do this for yourselves. If you do not understand where help ends and cheating starts - any one of our moderators or ambassadors will be happy to help.

Answer 44

I know this is tough for you. You need help and want to do well. So here is a way to think about it. If the assignment says, something like, no collaboration or help allowed, then do not ask that particular question. If it is a test, it probably means you can't get help. Of course some people have open book tests, but even so, it may mean you can't collaborate.
You could post a similar question from the book, and ask for help on that.
You could ask for an explanation of a concept. No one can fault you if you say, "I do not understand how to calculate equilibrium constants". And bring an example from a book.

Answer 45

Agreed besides teachers aren't available 24/7 and here we get the help we need.

Answer 46

According to the principal, you should be able to ask your teachers for help. Is that not the case? Are they not available or helpful?

Answer 47

Well @Preetha I asked my teacher if she can explain an assignments directions that i didn't understand and she replied saying "the instructions are in the message board please look there" and im like with my mouth dropped open and i was like wow... worst school ever

Answer 48

Personally I think we should have a deeper and more serious consequence towards those that give direct answers

Answer 49

You are all smart, and talented, and good kids. We want you all to succeed in school and in life. So we want to tell you all to be cry careful when you ask for help. I don't think they mind when you genuinely ask for help - its the people that are cheating/plagiarizing that will get into trouble. Honesty is a very very important virtue and it is a good time to think about that.

Answer 50

Every action you take has a consequence. Think about it - before you do it. If you break the rules - the consequence is not good. Why do it?

Answer 51

Well said @Preetha

Answer 52

I want to clarify this. If you went to a tutor and they worked out a problem for you and you entered that - would that be plagiarism?

Answer 53

Also if someone gives you a direct answer please ask for an explanation and if the refuse just report and a mod will make sure to take care of the user and hopefully guide you to the answer if a mod doesn't help by guiding u to the answer please tag me and i will get someone to help guide you to the correct answer ^_^

Answer 54

thanks @just_one_last_goodbye

Answer 55

No Problem ^_^ im glad I can help Open Study they have helped me allot and it would be a shame that OS goes down because of ignorant users that cant follow the rules

Answer 56

besides u dont need a special program to see if your words that you post are from someone else or not all the teachers have to do is copy and search it on google and it will show where you copied the answer and plagiarism can lead you to getting kicked out of your school

Answer 57

So I wish everyone the best of luck on OS and please just try not to get introuble with your school it goes on your permanent record meaning your future boss will see that you were kicked out of a school

Answer 58

I think someone that is an old user (smart score is high) should be more than aware that this is against the rules and shouldn't get a warning they should get a suspension ^_^

Answer 59

Also i have seen that most users give the answer first and then they explain and really most askers dont care what you have to say they just care about the answer.

Answer 60

Again?

Answer 61

lol xD @poopsiedoodle lol yes its the "OS Vs. Schools" again

Answer 62

well we really dont have a fight with schools their just wanna save their school and employees we are in the war that we have daily -_- against OS users that can obey with in the borders of the CoC

Answer 63

they can but the choose not to

Answer 64

This happened 2 years ago with me, and a few people (@SnuggieLad, @AriPotta, and I don't remember if there was anyone else) wrote a gigantic letter and sent it to one of the higher ups in FLVS about the situation. I wonder if we ever got that reply...

Answer 65

@Preetha aren't we funded by allot of education TV shows and stuff? so why cant we be treated just like them?

Answer 66

come on i dont hear schools telling students they cant watch history channels, nor do i hear them telling them to stop watching math channels or science channels. because we have to push and get more strict on this

Answer 67

and this is where i think is the perfect timing for the O.S.S.F.

Answer 68

well the O.S.S.F. is almost up and running ^_^ so lets see the effects of it

Answer 69

Nope, still no reply. Diggity dank. Should I post the email we sent?

Answer 70

i feel like this is gonna go awfully ._.

Answer 71

well, it's been an ongoing thing for at least 2 years, and we haven't experienced any negative effects from it yet, so I dunno

Answer 72

Yes, it happens, and OpenStudy is also against plagiarism.

First, what is plagiarism? Here are a few educational sources on the topic:
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/plagiarism/
http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/plag/whatisplag.php
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/

So, lets say you are doing your Beowulf homework and the question is, "What is your opinion of the battle scene between Grendel and Beowulf?" That is clearly wanting YOUR opinion. If you come to OpenStudy and ask someone else to answer this, it is THEIR opinion and plagiarism.

However, lets say you write up your opinion and come here and ask for a grammar check. That is not plagiarism. You getting some spelling mistakes and punctuation errors pointed out is not at all wrong. There is no theft of ideas or taking credit for the work when another wrote it.

If your school is having problems with plagiarism, it is fully understandable that they would want to stop it. However, that does not mean they want to stop all use of OpenStudy.

Answer 73

i go through k12 and i post my questions that i ONLY need help with on here and i mean i dont ask for the answers i really want help and someone to explain them to me. like @Jasmine456 said this is the way i get help

Answer 74

True, @Abhisar it's great for homeschooled people!! Just like me!! Never got a similar message to that:) With OpenStudy, that's how I graduated highschool!!:)

Answer 75

@YanaSidlinskiy "With OpenStudy, that's how I graduated highschool!!:)" you sound like an old lady now xD eh but your my little favorite old lady that i love so much and i know you never give direct answers you lead people so great job ^_^

Answer 76

Well, thanx^

Answer 77

i love openstudy this is a site that will help you through your whole life including if you go to collage online this will also help you tooo

Answer 78

Yeah Open study is a great sight so...Lets encourage people to use it carefully and responsively (^.^)