What this story covers:
When college students need help with homework, they often turn to websites such as Chegg and Quizlet. They find answers to problems, study guides and practice tests. But are they learning anything along the way?
Why it matters:
Study aid websites have become so commonly used that education experts have grown concerned that students are cheating themselves. That is, they are taking shortcuts rather than working out problems themselves.
By Ryan Moriarty & Emma Stark
Isabelle Cochran, an education major at Towson University, thrives in hands-on learning environments. She loves working in local elementary schools, which she’s had the chance to do through her program. But most of Cochran’s classes at Towson have been classroom-based, with traditional lectures, tests and homework. She struggled the most in these settings.
In some cases, when she was short on time and lacking motivation, she she turned to homework aid websites like Quizlet. Cochran realized she was taking a shortcut and initially felt guilty, but she needed to finish the work however she could.
“My teacher took the quizzes right from the textbook and if you Googled it, you would get every answer to the test,” she said. “And you could just copy and paste the question from the test and the entire test would come up. You just had to search a little bit, but it usually came up. So that’s what I used Quizlet for.”
For her prerequisite classes, none of which had to do with education, she used Quizlet when she could.
“Once I realized that these classes weren’t going to make me a better teacher, I just wanted to get them over with,” Cochran said.
But she eventually realized that using Quizlet wasn’t helping her learn. She didn’t do well in a history course.
“I realized I should have focused more and I probably would have done better with my own work,” she said. “And history was the last class I used Quizlet for.”
Cochran is one of many students who use websites like Quizlet and Chegg to take shortcuts with school work. These websites are easy to navigate, helping students find answers in a pinch. They don’t require much effort, and students rely on them often when they aren’t motivated to do the work or do not understand the material. Is using Quizlet and Chegg cheating? Opinions differ depending on the context. But most everyone agrees that students who use these websites are cheating themselves.
What are Chegg and Quizlet, and how do they work?
Chegg and Quizlet aren’t the first websites to help students find quick answers. But, along with Yahoo! Answers, they are among the most popular.
Before the internet, there was no way for students to get around the process of doing their own work unless they were able to get past students to give them their old tests and assignments. Even after the web became commonly used, students usually had to search for a long time to find what they needed. But the technology behind student aid websites has improved as automation and search engines have become more sophisticated.
Chegg, an online source for students, was founded in July 2005. Chegg offers textbook rentals, the opportunity to sell textbooks, online tutoring and, perhaps the most popular feature, homework solutions. An account costs $14.95 minimum for the basic monthly package, $6.95 for a single lesson or $30 a month that includes video chats with tutors.
Once an account is made, users can type in their homework questions and hundreds of step-by-step solutions will pop up. This allows students to see how to do the problem or simply write the answer down. Chegg is often used for classes that involve math, science or finance — classes that use formulas or have clear right and wrong answers to problem sets.
Quizlet, another online source for students, was founded in 2007. Quizlet is a free website that allows students to make flashcards, study games and practice tests. There is the option to upgrade to $2 a month for offline access, but a paid account is not needed for general use. Unless users change their settings to private, other users can see study tools that were created. That means students can Google a question and have that answer pop up in a link to someone’s old Quizlet with the answer. Quizlet can be used for all subjects and is especially useful for classes with vocabulary words and concepts to memorize.
Chegg and Quizlet are unknown to some educators. Those who are familiar with them have a range of opinions. Some think the websites shouldn’t exist or that students should never use them. Others are fine with students using them to make flashcards or study but are uncomfortable with students finding answers on assignments.
Mahnaz Moallem is department chair and a professor in Towson’s educational technology and literacy program. Jeff Kenton is an associate professor in the department. Both are familiar with Chegg and Quizlet. Hear their takes on these study aid websites.
Dr. Moallem Dr. KentonMixed feelings about the websites
Students and educators often have different views on whether these sites are helpful study aids, considered cheating or somewhere in between. Some students dislike using them because they feel it makes classes harder in the long run. If they aren’t really learning material, how can they do well on an in-person exam? Others feel it’s unfair if some students use Chegg and Quizlet while others don’t.
Another issue is that sometimes the answers on these websites are entered incorrectly — especially if done by another student.
To dissuade students from using Quizlet, some teachers have started to make new tests each semester instead of using test banks (which rely on the same test every year). That way students cannot post the test questions on Quizlet for future students. Laura Oppenheimer, a marketing director for Quizlet, said in an article that the company has an honor code it asks students to follow, and asks that they follow their school’s honor code. If schools or teachers ask Quizlet to take content down (that relates to their class), Quizlet says it will oblige.
Chegg does not accept requests for papers to be written. If it becomes a recurring issue with users, they are removed from the platform. There is still the step-by-step solutions section, however, where students can enter a question to get an answer if someone else had previously asked that question and someone answered it.
Chegg doesn’t stop this function, but if the student’s university contacts Chegg asking if and how the student has been using the site, Chegg will provide that information. So students have to be careful how much they use Chegg to get homework answers, according to an article on Edsurge.
There are other websites students use for homework and class help such as Course Hero, which shows parts of worksheet answers (and more if students pay for an account). There’s an app called Socratic that allows students to take a picture of a question and the app searches the internet for the answer. And then there’s Yahoo! Answers, which grew in popularity years ago.
Chase Bradshaw, a 2019 Loyola University-Maryland graduate who now works in finance, said it is up to students to take their education into their own hands and remember that Quizlet and Chegg are shortcuts. Even if it seems like a good idea to simply copy and paste every answer, students may regret it in the end.
How to get students away from Chegg and Quizlet
Educators can ask — or even demand — that students don’t use these websites. But perhaps a better way to dissuade them is to create assignments and tests that don’t require memorization and looking up a correct answer. That means more hands-on learning experiences, according to Rebecca Shargel, an associate professor of education at Towson University.
Kenton agrees that assignments that require more critical thinking are a good solution.
“I would say that the best way that I’ve run across for people to learn is to be engaged in an activity where they are actually performing some sort of either realistic or modeled activity where they’re performing the same types of activities that a person would do,” Kenton said.
Interactive learning helps keep students’ attention and it allows them to experience what they are learning in real-time.
“Students like to learn through firsthand experience rather than having someone else give them a series of conclusions,” Shargel said.
If step is one to test students more on critical thinking skills and require less memorization (when possible), step two is on students. They need make the decision to do their own work.
That’s easier said than done. Michelle Jenkins, a senior at Towson University studying health science, said she relies on aid websites when homework is worth a large portion of the grade and she is short on time. And the websites remain helpful for study tools, she said.
“I think [the websites] have their purpose, but when students use them just to get answers and skate by it ends up biting them in the a** at the end,” Bradshaw said.
“They never fail me,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins said teachers should enhance the way they teach to help eliminate the problem. Coming up with new questions or de-emphasizing worksheets and homework could all make students feel less inclined to use Quizlet and Chegg, he said.
Cochran, the education student, said she plans to use more hands-on experiential learning when she becomes a teacher. She’s learned from her experience that requiring students to memorize terms and concepts isn’t the way she learns best.
“Just hands on learning — get [students] involved in what they’re doing instead of having a PowerPoint up on the screen about whatever subject we’re learning, have them learn hands on and have them do activities instead,” Cochran said.