Is there any advantage to cheating in Coursera? Coursera doesn't offer certification.
>>Is the answer truly "U.S. academic institutions are infallible and the world must comply to our standards?"
No the answer is "Students shouldn't be plagiarizing because they won't get any of the benefit from actually doing their homework."
Yeah. I thought the whole purpose of the open courseware initiative was placing the learning of content ahead of the "credit". If you choose to cheat, who cares? You are only hurting yourself.
Also, cheating on an exam is a classic tragedy of the commons-- if everyone did it, course grades are meaningless. And yes, this comment has rather misinformed views of "over there".
Wow, you just insulted a significant chunk of the HN readership.
EDIT: You should carefully consider your words before you speak, and perhaps also re-consider your values and opinion of other cultures.
Is there any disadvantage to cheating on an anonymous website course (other than personally not knowing the material)?
You can't compare the motives of an upper middle class suburban American kid with the popular view of China/India/"Over There" where everything is copied, cheated, and broken down in a dog-eat-dog society.
Their official statement shows obliviousness to cross cultural issues and societal norms: “A large part of the plagiarism arises from lack of understanding of the expected standards of behavior in U.S. academic institutions, especially among students who have not been trained in such institutions,” said Daphne Koller, a co-founder of the company and a Stanford University professor, in an e-mail interview. “We believe that this language will be quite helpful.”
Is the answer truly "U.S. academic institutions are infallible and the world must comply to our standards?"