Course Hero

Course Hero is a self-described social learning network for students to access study resources and study groups. Its educator portal is a micropublishing platform for educators to distribute their educational resources. Course Hero collects study resources like old exams, class notes and study guides from users who upload. Users upload documents in order to receive membership and access the other documents that are uploaded on the website. 1] Some liken the resource sharing to a high-tech twist on an old college practice. Fraternities and sororities have long maintained "test files," where younger members study from older members' course work. [2] As of April 2009, Course Hero "holds a library of more than two million course documents, including homework, class notes and graded essays, uploaded by students enrolled at 3,000 different colleges", according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. 3] Students either pay a monthly subscription or avoid paying anything and instead upload documents that could be useful to other students. [4] On Course Hero, "students can type in a college name and course number to unearth the previous semester’s particle physics final exam. They can find examples of research papers on, say, the causes of World War I. " [5] According to "Course Hero: Study Aid or Cheating? --an article in ASSETT--a vocal constituency of professors and students liken the act of sharing study resources online or offline to cheating. [6] According to an article in Inside Higher Education, another constituency of educators and students state that many professors have legitimate copyright claims on materials that have been uploaded without their knowledge. Like YouTube, Course Hero only takes down copyrighted content if there is a complaint. [7]

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