How Online written help is not cheating

1. How Online Written Help is not ‘Cheating’? “Nothing is more powerful for your future than being a gatherer of good ideas and information. That's called doing your homework.” -Jim Rohn We have come a long way from scribbling on stone to cloud computing (internet storage). Today we are living in a time of disruptive innovation, digital libraries and we no longer look for answers, we simply GOOGLE it! This is a time of Kindle, Google for Education, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), etc. where you can learn anytime from anywhere. In the following humorous statement, “to steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.” This statement itself has been credited to many authors though on the internet it shows up as coined by Wilson Mizner! Everyday on Facebook one comes across a quote which on one day is attributed to Shakespeare and on the other to a famous American President! Internet is fast becoming a catalyst which is facilitating learning as we browse through piece of news and come across ‘viral’ content in our day to day lives. The point is netizens are living in an age where the internet is the biggest knowledge repository, facilitating interactive learning and is fundamental to improve the quality of education. Evolution of learning Now imagine a class of Greek scholars, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the famous teacher of Alexander the Great and what must be ensuing there. Students sitting on rocks (obviously the writer’s imagination is largely inspired by motion pictures) and furtively jotting down their notes on a piece of a prototype of paper. All that must have ensued would have been surely ‘intellectual’. The larger point here is that when a tutee listens to the teacher and later writes the same point during an examination that is not ‘cheating’ but this act of memorizing itself and later producing it verbatim is called ‘learning’. But why go that far? Let’s talk about the generation that we are all familiar with and take a peek into their learning style. Gen X (1965-1980) who got introduced to technology much later in their lives. Think of Gen X, how they learned, first, of course, there was a classroom, if you did not get the

2. ‘lesson’ you could go to the library and find books that could answer your questions. Even then if you had a doubt you could always go for face-to- face tutoring or refer to books that were rightly called ‘Guides’. Now ‘Guides’ or ‘Answer Key’ were the books where you looked for answers if you needed textbook solutions or step by step answers for Mathematical problems. This act in itself was not ‘cheating’ but it was viewed as a part of research or making an effort. It was seen as referring to books to increase one’s knowledge. This very act of bothering to look up an answer from a “Key” was appreciated and it was definitely not “cheating”. NowOxford dictionary defines cheating as “cheat (at something) to act in a dishonest way in order to gain an advantage, especially in a game, a competition, an exam, etc.”So what was called ‘cheating’ was the act itself of scribbling notes, peeping from books and any kind of body art which comprised of hands tattooed with theorems and equations and even scribbles of papers being passed around in the examination hall. With the advent of technology, it ushered an era of ‘online tutoring’ where learning is just a click away. Students of the digital age have access to learning 24/7, even in the wee hours of the morning! There is a whole new wave of learners and they are citizens of a global community. The platform belongs to everyone today for the ‘early birds’ to ‘night owls’; children with special needs; introverts and extroverts; homeschoolers and to those like Malala Yousafzai learning from a war-stricken region. What is Asynchronous Tutoring A lot of literature already exists on online tutoring or synchronous tutoring but today let’s look at asynchronous tutoring. Asynchronous tutoring relies on offline coursework.

3. Source: https://www.onlineschools.org/online-tutoring/ Now asynchronous tutoring is often vilified as it is viewed from the old lens of old-schoolers as something akin to ‘cheating'. The argument here is that this is not the case for Gen Y(1981-1996), Gen X (1995-2010) and even for the super technology savvy upcoming Generation Alpha (2011-2025). They are the ones that are growing up on technology and they have grown up in a world where the internet is their guide for everything. Let’s see how the users look at it:

4. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-looking-for-homework-assignment-answers-online-considered-https://www.quora.com/Why-is-looking-for-homework-assignment-answers-online-considered- Source: cheating Rebecca Howell, a freelance tutor, opines that research cannot be considered cheating. She states that if online assignments help facilitates a better understanding of a subject, then it cannot be called ‘cheating’.

5. Source: is-an-open-book-and-you-are-allowed-to-use-tutoring https://www.quora.com/Is-it-cheating-to-use-the-Internet-for-help-with-homework-if-it- Tim Haston, 7th Grade Math and Science Teacher at Global Learning Charter Public School, advises ‘due diligence’ is required and “if the assistance from a tutor/internet/app is simply allowing you to learn how to do the skill, or giving you the support to do the work and succeed.”

6. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-looking-for-homework-assignment-answers-online-https://www.quora.com/Why-is-looking-for-homework-assignment-answers-online- Source: considered-cheating Kip Wheeler, a Faculty Sponsor for Alpha Chi Honor Society, also believes that this act of looking for assignment answers is not ‘cheating’ if one is using it for research. However, he believes the internet can’t replace learning, only supplement it. The point is the ‘intent’ of the user defines what ‘cheating’ is. To a student who wishes to ‘cheat’ has an equal chance of doing it anyway. Then why look down upon e-learning sites that provide written assistance to students. VARK Learning Preference According to Neil Fleming, educational theorist, who propositions VARK learning style, elaborates:

7. Source: https://www.teachhub.com/vark-model-teaching-strategies

8. Source:https://www.uow.edu.au/student/learning-co-op/effective-studying/identify-your-Source:https://www.uow.edu.au/student/learning-co-op/effective-studying/identify-your- learning-style/ So ‘written assistance’ is for those learners who prefer an offline interaction, where they can get a walkthrough or ‘text-based’ input so that they can learn the way they want to. It is simply a preferred learning style for someone who learns best through words.

9. What’s Happening in the age of the Internet today According to cbsnews.com, 8 Top websites student uses to cheat, Wikipedia Encyclopedia tops the list. Now Wikipedia is the go-to website and it is the most credible source to any online user. If this news baffles you let’s have a look as to what it states: The larger point here is to point out the fact that if a student wishes to cheat, there are a thousand different ways she/he can. The Internet also makes it harder to ‘cheat’ as there are so many tools like plagiarism checkers, tools that can detect paraphrased content and many more. At the same time those students who intend to ‘cheat’ go to any extent to do that. There have been reports where students have been found using ‘spy cameras’, ‘fake fingerprints’ and even ‘electronic erasers’!

10. Conclusion Let us broaden our minds and look at ‘written help’ as not cheating but simply a way of learning. It could help better prepare a young mind for an upcoming examination or simply a few pointers of reference for a young scholar to develop a theory on. Every idea or theory that exists today was largely built upon a previous idea. There are constitutions in the world that to many may appear a copy- paste job of existing constitutions of developed countries but to that given country they are like a beautiful patchwork of democratic thoughts woven together. It is time to change the thinking and how we define ‘cheating’ and about time we make a case for ‘written help’. Online Tutoring platforms like TutorEye offer written help or asynchronous tutoring to its students. TutorEye is one of the fastest growing online tutoring platforms with a vision to “UpGRADE learning with PRICE-LESS Tutoring!” It is credible platforms like these that recognize the need of the hour and provide ‘written help’ to students who have a learning preference for reading and writing. E-learning is here to stay so it is about time we change our ‘mindset’ and look at learning styles with a new lens.