What Information Does Chegg Give To Universities?

The whole educational system has changed in recent years, it has changed how students are offered homework assignments and examinations.

With changes in things recently, many students rather taking online classes.

Yet, with a rise in how technology is being used for classes, there has also been a rise in cheating as well. 

One of these more popular ways of cheating is to upload exam questions on Chegg and get the correct or incorrect answers as the exam goes on.

Of course, Universities have become aware of this happening and decided to put a variety of steps in place to keep this method of cheating at bay. 

So, what information does Chegg give to Universities? Today we will discuss what information Chegg gives to Universities. 

Cheggs Academic Integrity Officer Guidelines 

Chegg states that they are committed to the students and their learning outcomes. They state the following:

• “Our services are designed to support learning, not replace it. We provide on-demand learning support online 24/7. We offer step-by-step explanations and learning support tools like flashcards, exam prep, writing and anti-plagiarism tools, and other services, including textbook rentals, to support students wherever and whenever they need it”.
• “Our services should only be used to support learning and assist with understanding coursework and Chegg study”. 
• “They are expressly not intended to be used for fraud or cheating – such as asking for answers to an active test or exam. Or, for copying answers found online, and then submitting them as your own. These defeat the purpose of learning and are unfair. 

We can see here that although students cheat who often use Chegg, this is not the purpose of the service, and they expressly note that this is not part of its intention. 

Cheggs Honor Code

The Cheggs Honor Code actually informs users that the way in which the platform is being used to cheat is a violation and to follow a formal academic dishonesty process.

Using any of the answers, solutions, materials, or information available on the site to cheat an exam or any graded work is considered to be a total violation of the Cheggs Honor Code.

1. Using services to ask questions that are being asked as part of an exam or graded work is considered a violation. 
2. Passing along materials, solutions, or other information from services as your own work without attribution to Chegg is considered a violation. 

Anyone caught violating the Cheggs honor code will receive punishment for doing so. 

Honor Code Investigation

University professors and official representatives of colleges and universities can request honor code investigations, upon request, Chegg can provide information for URLs submitted such as: 

• The time and date stamp of a solution posted.
• The time and date stamp of a question posted. 

Chegg, however, does not give out personal information as part of honor code investigations. A form and official letter of request must be provided on behalf of the Dean or Academic Integrity office from the institution. 

What Information Does Chegg Give Out To Universities?

Chegg can, however, send universities reports that feature student information should you upload any questions or view any answers that are available on the platform. 

Also, should a student use their school email or include the name of their institution during the registration process then there is a likelihood that you may get listed.

The Chegg report also has sufficient information to be able to identify some students but cannot identify all.

A typical report by Chegg will have two tabs, asker details, and viewer details, each will feature various details.

Asker details will include the following information: 

• Question ID and date.
• Asker email ID.
• Answer date.
• Asker User ID, as well as first and last name.
• Student school name. 
• The computer IP address where the question was uploaded. 
• The question and answer. 

The viewer details will include the following: 

• The question ID.
• The View date,
• Viewer email ID.
• Answer ID.
• First & last name.
• School name. 
• The computer IP address where the question was uploaded. 

Should a person use an email address other than their school email address to register for Chegg then the institution may fail to identify said person. If a person uses their personal email address as well as different names for example. 

Does Chegg Release Information To Universities?

Chegg will only release personal details to universities if the institution feels that the student has used the platform to cheat when undertaking an online examination, or if they believe that the assignment answers were achieved without any valuable input of effort. 

Should a student use their real name or the email address of the school to access Chegg then the institution can identify the student easily. 

Chegg also stores a list of URLs of the questions uploaded without authorization should a university demand a report.

Also, the information of students who upload the questions and see the answers will also be sent to the institution if the content has been uploaded illegally. 

It is the responsibility of the student to be aware of how to use the platform accurately. Note that it is the purpose of Chegg to help in studying and not to aid in cheating. 

Once a university contacts Chegg, you will be notified that your Chegg account will be canceled. However, this is not a long-term solution as students can still use alternative email addresses to create a new account.

Thus the problem needs to be addressed on a deeper level.

How Long Do Chegg Investigations Take? 

Once a university has demanded an investigation in order to determine whether a student has used the platform to cheat, a response could take anywhere from 3 to 4 days, although this does depend on the severity of the instance. 

Yet, most responses will only take 24 hours.

Chegg will also coordinate the investigation if a request has come from either the Office of the Dean or the body in charge of addressing academic integrity at a learning institution. 

A university will fill out a form, or may even email Chegg directly. The letter will need to include the university letterhead as well as an official signature.

The institution will at first, receive an automated response and later they will get the results. 

The report will come in the form of an Excel document with sample findings that will include information, such as what we showed is often given above. 

After this, the institution will run an AI process. 

In order to help in preventing online cheating during examinations, Chegg advises institutions to forward questions before they conduct the examination to block the questions from being visible to their students. 

Final Thoughts

Chegg will provide information such as names, emails, IP addresses, and the time and date that a question was uploaded and viewed by specific parties involved in suspected cheating. 

While Chegg can be the beneficial and affordable platform for students to aid in their learning, it has become a problem for universities running classes, exams, and graded tests online.

Luckily Chegg investigates any instances of cheating when brought to their attention by a university or learning institute that is suspicious of foul play.