An online college test bank could result in one UNC Charlotte student getting in trouble with the law. The student said he will work with the school to make things right.
CHARLOTTE -- An online college test bank could result in one UNC Charlotte student getting in trouble with the law.
UNCC junior Simon O’Brien created the web site Keeboh.com to allow students and faculty to post and download previous exams. University leaders say this might be against school rules, and the law. As final exams near, O’Brien says he is just trying to level the playing field.
"Some students on a campus have access to formerly-administered tests and others don't and that's really not fair,” he said. Together with a student at UNC Chapel Hill, O’Brien created the site where people paid a fee to utilize the test bank service.
Currently, only UNCC and East Carolina University tests are on the site, though students from Appalachian State, UNC Wilmington, UNC Greensboro, UNC Pembroke, Furman and N.C. State have submitted tests that have not been added. UNCC and ECU had tests put up as those are the two schools where students have expressed the most interest.
UNCC junior Simon O’Brien created the web site Keeboh.com to allow students and faculty to post and download previous exams.
"We're hoping that by the end of the summer, we'll be able to work with universities and to collaborate with them in order for [the schools] to provide the bulk of the information,” said O’Brien.
Before Monday, UNCC administrators didn’t know about the site. Now aware of the issue, the school’s vice chancellor for student affairs says it is a university policy violation.
"Anyone engaging in [using the test bank] might be subject to any sanction from an academic warning to, in more serious accounts such as people who are selling it, probably suspension or expulsion from school,” said Dr. Arthur Jackson, who added “[school] is about learning … not about finding the easy way out. And by copying or buying an exam, students aren’t learning anything.”
Interjected O’Brien, “We are going to be completely willing to work with the university in any way that the need us to in order to get their seal of approval. We in no way at all support cheating or violating the honor code of any type."
O’Brien says he planned on making the site free by next year, but will do so immediately if necessary. University leaders at UNCC said the legal departments for both UNCC and the UNC system will look into the issue before making any decisions.