PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ZAK WOOD/COLORADO DAILY

A recent Web site that allows students to post class-specific notes, quizzes, and even exams is generating popularity in California and is expected to spread to more American universities.

"PostYourTest.com is an educational tool that lets students anonymously upload materials and tests from their previous and current classes," stated a July 15 article in Penn State University's Daily Collegian.

While the site claims to offer students exams and the like as supplemental material for classes, critics of the site state that it could also be manipulated by students as a tool for cheating.

"I'd rather be the one to show my students what my tests are going to look like," said Bruce Kawin, Professor of English and Film Studies at CU.

Kawin told the Colorado Daily that, since he always writes new tests, posting old exams would not help his students cheat. At the same time, however, he resents that it takes an element of control away from him being able to teach his own class -- noting that if it was a legitimate site, "then why are people posting anonymously?"

Another question the new site begs relates to the legal ramifications of sites that open the door for students to infringe upon their university's honor codes by providing services that make cheating and plagiarism much easier -- such as MasterPapers.com, where students can actually pay to have papers custom-written based directly on the criteria of their individual professor's assignment.

"It's scummy," said Barbara Bintliff, CU Professor and Director of the Law Library, who told the Colorado Daily that a simple disclaimer notifying potential customers that services are intended for research use only is all that is needed to avoid any major legal hang-ups. "I think that morally there is something wrong with it -- but free speech will let you publish just about anything you want online. It's not illegal for companies to hold themselves out as research services."

"Information is basically a commodity," Bintliff continued, "so it's really the use that the individual makes of this information that puts it into the 'This is OK' or 'I'm cheating' categories."

Because, as Bintliff noted, it ultimately comes down to the choice of each individual student whether or not, and to what extent, to use these sites, it is only the individual student who will be held responsible if he or she is caught using them inappropriately.

"Using these sites may or may not constitute an Honor Code violation," said John Alford, CU Junior and Honor Code Chair. "Nevertheless, a student who is found in violation of the University of Colorado at Boulder's Honor Code will receive various sanctions depending on the egregiousness of the situation."

Alford, who also noted that "students who cheat don't need the Internet" in order to do it, told the Colorado Daily that although there are a number of online methods for Faculty such as Bintliff and Kawin to screen for test leaks and plagiarism, most professors don't have to worry about keeping up with technology to know when something is awry.

"I believe the faculty members at CU are attentive and I trust their ability to analyze a situation," he said, noting that it's easy for most professors to realize a sudden and drastic improvement from one test score to the next or when a poorly-written introduction on a term paper is followed by paragraphs that "sound like they were written by someone with 30 years of experience in the field."

Moreover, as Bintliff pointed out, in many cases it is more difficult to find a source online that is any more trustworthy than just doing the work on your own through the actual professor who is asking for it.

"I think you would have to be pretty desperate to go through an unknown source over your own effort," she said. "If you can't verify the credibility of the Web site creator or the authenticity of the information on it, you are nuts to use it."

For more information about CU's own Honor Code policies, visit their Web site at www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode.

Contact Lance Vaillancourt about this story at (303) 443-6272, ext. 125, or vaillancourt@coloradodaily.com