Overview

Numerous commercial websites are available for university students to download lecture notes, study guides, and other course materials. Typically they provide incentives for strong students to upload course material, with cash for each purchase by another student or in exchange for free membership or a nominal monetary credit with the service. When it IS NOT Academic Misconduct At CSU it is NOT academic misconduct to upload or download your personal lecture notes or personal study guides created for the course. When It IS Academic Misconduct as defined in the Student Conduct Code Uploading Prohibited Course Materials: Any course materials for which distribution HAS NOT been specifically allowed by your instructor for distribution to third-party sites.

Cautionary Notes about Study Guide Sites

• These sites market themselves as study guides, but that’s not the full story.
• Using information found on these sites is often an obvious giveaway that a student is cheating.
• These sites also engage in the sale and distribution of the intellectual property created by our faculty, and that is wrong
• So-called tutoring offered on these sites is also academic misconduct since getting someone else to work a problem or exam question is cheating.

But there may be other problems Facilitation of another person’s academic misconduct is also a violation of the Student Conduct Code. In other words, “knowingly assisting another to commit an act of dishonesty,” by posting prohibited information online, is against the rules. For the complete definition of the academic misconduct, please see: The CSU Student Conduct Code Announcing the availability of uploaded materials by using the class Canvas email list or announcements is a violation of both the: CSU Sales and Solicitation Policy — AND THE — Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for Computing & Networking Resources at Colorado State University. Instructors should address this issue in the syllabus and in the course policies and announcements on Canvas.

Copyright Infringement

Uploading an instructor’s work product is a copyright violation issue. Examples are a PowerPoint presentation or study guide prepared by the instructor, even if it has been distributed to the class. Material directly from a textbook, such as the the chapter’s “Study Questions”, in a Study Guide posted by a student would be a copyright violation. Students may not profit from another’s work. In additition, the Colorado Revised Statutes (§ 23-4-103) makes it illegal to offer to “prepare, sell, or distribute any term paper, dissertation, or other written material for a fee or other compensation.” For the complete text, please see below: Title 23, Article 4, Trafficking in Academic Materials