The development of Web sites that allow students to exchange notes and participate in online study groups has raised issues of scholastic dishonesty.
These collaborative sites may also violate the UT honor code, according to the University's Institutional Rules on Student Services and Activities.
According to chapter 11 of the rules, "Students are expected to complete assignments independently unless the course instructor indicates otherwise. So working together on assignments is not permitted unless the instructor specifically approves of any such collaboration."
The University Senate of College Councils has sponsored activities, such as IntegrityUT Week, to promote academic honesty and an understanding of the UT honor code.
"Some of these Web sites would be classified as inappropriate collusion or collaborative work," said Senate Chair Stephen Myers. "Sites that are used to help students as educational tools are OK, but substituting classroom experience is not."
The rules also say that paying and/or coercing another person to obtain an unadministered test, test key, homework solution or computer program is also a student violation.
"A professor's lecture notes and the knowledge that is being imposed and imparted upon students in that classroom are a part of intellectual property and are protected by copyright," said Dean of Students Soncia Reagins-Lilly.
There is an exception to these copyright rules regarding students taking notes. Students are allowed to take notes for two reasons: Notes are available and helpful to recall information, and some students keep their notes as a part of their lifelong journey of obtaining knowledge, Reagins-Lilly said.
"However, selling notes from a lecture is a misappropriation of intellectual property, and the University does not condone that behavior," Reagins-Lilly said.
A new student-run Web site,
Schoology.com, which allows students to share notes in exchange for money, may be infringing on copyright laws, according to UT scholastic rules.
Jeremy Friedman, a junior at Washington University, created the site in February.
Ethical and moral issues about sites that allow students to practice collaborative learning are popping up in other places outside the U.S.
Chris Avenir, an engineering freshman at Toronto's Ryerson University, was recently punished for creating a Facebook group that allowed his fellow students to exchange notes and solutions for his chemistry class.
Avenir was accused of cheating and was on the verge of expulsion, but a disciplinary panel at Ryerson decided that giving him a zero on the assignment was more appropriate.
"Chris is getting a wide range of support from the students here at the university, which is surprising because he is just a first-year student," said Nora Loreto, president of the Ryerson Student Union.
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