PDF books, solution manuals in the context of college

[siquike]

In engineering school, sometimes when homework gets assigned, it takes a considerable amount of time to complete the homework, since sometimes what is read in the textbook vs the questions asked in the homework don’t seem to connect. Sometimes concepts seem impossible to connect. It saves a crazy amount of time to resort to the aid of a solution manual. Some people use the website Chegg for solutions. However, many professors categorize using solution manuals as cheating. I am aware that morality is a bigger set than legality and goes beyond authority (Except for the pope, bishops, and the magisterium when under the conditions of infallibility). In the context of this issue, in which cases can we disregard what is illegal or what the authority (professor/school) demands? What is the Catholic thing to do? Is it moral to use Chegg? It is moral to acquire and use a legal solution manual for the sake of speedy learning? Illegal one? Is it moral to copy a homework from the solutions manual? When is it moral? when is it not?

Also, sometimes we need to use many textbooks, which we need to carry to the library. They are very heavy and very expensive. A group of people do not buy the books and acquire illegal copies of it. There is a group of people who buy the books and don’t carry them around. Instead they use another copy of the book in PDF format, which they did not purchase. Sometimes they assign homework problems that can be found in a different textbook to the one we are using. Some people find it online illegally and use it only to complete the homework. To my understanding, having the physical book does not give you the legal right to own a PDF you did not to pay for. Some people have a really hard time paying for school. They resort to illegal PDFs or international editions of textbooks, which are usually the same book, but cheaper. Supposedly, international books should not be sold in the US. When is it moral to acquire an illegal copy of a textbook and use it? Is it morally acceptable to acquire the international edition if you don’t want to pay double or more the price?

(Please try to be as objective and logical as possible with your answers)

Thank you in advance.

 

[Joe_5859]

With regards to the first scenario – and maybe I’m not understanding what engineering homework entails – I don’t see how it would ever be okay to look up the answers online. The whole point of the homework is to figure it out for yourself. I imagine looking up the answers saves all sorts of time as one doesn’t have to do the work for themselves! But that doesn’t make it right. Cheating is wrong not just because it is against the school’s rules but because it is deceptive. You are claiming credit for work that you did not do.

With regards to the second scenario, downloading a copy of a book illegally would be wrong – whether the student were in difficult circumstances or not. Having a pdf copy of a book you do own might be different. I’m not sure.

Technology makes it possible to take all sorts of short cuts. Back in my day p), if our books were too heavy or expensive, we had no other alternative than to bring them/buy them or not. Likewise, looking up the answers online wasn’t an option either.

 

[revert_jen]

In engineering school, sometimes when homework gets assigned, it takes a considerable amount of time to complete the homework, since sometimes what is read in the textbook vs the questions asked in the homework don’t seem to connect. Sometimes concepts seem impossible to connect.

Sometimes that is just bad textbook selection on the teacher’s part, but sometimes a main point of the homework is figuring out how the problems relate to the textbook. This seems like something for the instructor’s office hours, any tutoring center there might be on campus, or independant research online, rather than a solutions manual.

It saves a crazy amount of time to resort to the aid of a solution manual. Some people use the website Chegg for solutions. However, many professors categorize using solution manuals as cheating.

In any class where the professor has categorized the use of solution manuals as cheating, it is cheating. In the same way that in some tests, the use of a scientific calculator is cheating and in some tests it is not, the definition of what is cheating is decided by the professor. And anyone who disobeys the rules is taking an unfair advantage over the rule-abiding students in the class, especially if the class is graded on a curve.

You might, in office hours or after class, just ask the professor why he considers the solution manuals as cheating. You might gain some useful insight.

In the context of this issue, in which cases can we disregard what is illegal or what the authority (professor/school) demands? What is the Catholic thing to do?

It is never OK. You cannot disregard what is illegal, because as a Catholic the only time it is OK not to follow the laws is when the laws require you to do something immoral (e.g. the one-child policy), and you cannot disregard the stated policies for the class or for the school for the reasons I gave above.

Is it moral to use Chegg? It is moral to acquire and use a legal solution manual for the sake of speedy learning? Illegal one? Is it moral to copy a homework from the solutions manual? When is it moral? when is it not?

If there are no prohibitions from the school or the professor, it would be OK to use a legal solutions manual as an aid. It wouldn’t ever be moral (or smart, for that matter) to copy homework from the solutions manual, but it would be reasonable to use it to give you a place to start and to check your answers. But aside from any moral implications, you’ll never really learn the material (or pass the test) if you’ve copied out your homework.

Also, sometimes we need to use many textbooks

Sorry, I don’t know much about this question. When I was in school, you didn’t have the options that people have now, and the only textbook I bought recently, I bought new from the publisher, which did give the right to access an online version. But that’s not practical if you are a full-time student. So, I don’t know enough to provide any thoughts on that issue. But if there are a few textbooks that you will be using in several classes each, you might want to consider buying them new from the publisher if that would give you legal access to an online version. Obviously that is not practical for the large majority of books, though.

Keep in mind with my thoughts above, that I haven’t even attempted to say how wrong it would be, or how serious the sin would be, because I have no idea. Maybe there is a trained moral theologian around here, or even better, maybe you could ask your local priest about it.

Best of luck with your studies,

–Jen