Teachers Fret as Students Flock to Study Sites

Offering class notes, old exams, and homework answers, study websites are a big hit with students, but teachers are less excited about the technology, the Wall Street Journal reports. Instructors worry sites like Cramster, which has sold twice as many $10 monthly subscriptions in 2009 compared to a year ago, could encourage students to cheat. But as schools cut faculty and classes, demand grows.

Cramster provides answers to problems in some 225 textbooks, driving one professor to cut the value of homework in final grades. Posted tests give site users a leg up when teachers reuse questions, and the websites profit from using the exams, which belong to teachers, notes a university official. “Some teachers think we're the worst thing to ever happen,” says the strategy head at one site.
(More study stories.)