Karen Symms Gallagher column: Easy cheating is a dark side of modern education - Richmond.com

AP

Since there seems to be an app for everything, it may come as no surprise that there is an app for cheating. But it isn’t just one app. It’s hundreds of companies and apps that actually can be used to complete students’ homework, tests, writing assignments, and even dissertations and exams.

But what surprised me most as an educator playing this cat-and-mouse game for decades is that cheating now is scaled and outsourced internationally, and powered by venture capitalists, Wall Street investors and billion-dollar companies. One of the biggest companies whose services enable students to cheat, Chegg, is facing a lawsuit filed in September by major textbook company Pearson.

Companies such as Chegg and Course Hero offer monthly subscription formats — similar to Netflix — in which students pay $10 or $15 a month for round-the-clock access to resources including exam questions, textbook solutions and homework “help,” meaning that subscribers can upload a problem to their accounts and expect answers with proof within minutes or the hour.

They also get on-demand access to many experts, often based overseas (Chegg employs more than 70,000 experts in India), with advanced degrees in math, science, engineering, technology, business, economics and other subjects. These experts, available online 24/7, are the source of step-by-step answers.

Companies such as Grade Bees and EduBirdie will even write your five-page reflective paper or 25-page essay, as original work, for varied...

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