WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Some Purdue faculty members are concerned about a recent deal between the university and Chegg.
Chegg is an online company with resources for students.
The deal between Purdue's Online Writing lab or Purdue owl, will help power writing tools produced by Chegg. In return, students have access to those Chegg tools.
However some professors are concerned the tools are too helpful, to the point of cheating.
Professor of Economics Stephen Martin said in one of his online classes, two students from two different countries had identical answers to an essay question. He eventually found they had taken it from Chegg's site.
"What's problematic is Purdue University lending it's good name and reputation to a company whose business plan apparently involves helping students cheat," said Martin.
The liaison for the university and Chegg said he would work on getting better answers faculty questions concerning plagiarism.
Negotiations for the partnership have been in the works for close to two years.