Online solving services, which provide solutions to homework, test, and exam questions for students, have increased rapidly in recent years. These services leverage technology to give students quick access to answers, often for a fee. As online solutions have expanded, questions about academic honesty and the breadth of knowledge these tools can encourage have grown. Examining the emergence of online solvers, this paper investigates the demand for these services, who is utilizing them, and the potential effects on student results.
The Growth of Online Solving Services
To satisfy growing student demand over the past ten years, hundreds of websites and applications providing homework solutions and exam answers have debuted. Companies like Chegg, Course Hero, Slader, and Physics Problem Solver by Smodin host millions of solved textbook problems, exam prep materials, step-by-step solutions, and more. Other sites connect students directly to tutors who can provide customized solutions for a fee.
Underlying Drivers of Demand
What factors underpin the massive growth in online solving services? Several interrelated trends have stoked student demand:
Workload Pressures
Students today face mounting academic workloads, especially in higher grade levels. Heavy homework assignments, demanding curriculum standards, test prep, extracurriculars, and jobs strain students inside and outside class. Online solving offers a form of relief.
Concept Gaps
As course material grows more complex, students struggle with foundational concept gaps. Solved examples can help fill holes in understanding. Without a solid grasp of concepts, students lean on shortcuts.
Time Constraints
Students cite lack of time as a top reason for using online solving services. With packed schedules, many opt to outsource assignments to gain time for other tasks.
Stress and Anxiety
Performance anxiety pushes students towards academic shortcuts. Fears over subpar grades, especially related to high-stakes exams, motivate students to get answers by any means.
Who Is Using Online Solving Services?
By the looks of the usage statistics, online solving has gone completely mainstream. Most people think that these services are only used by struggling or lazy students, but studies show that usage rates are the same for high and low performers. Online solving is an efficient strategy, not an academic crutch, and many bright, motivated students use it.
All kinds of institutions — from community colleges to Ivy League universities — have been penetrated by online solving. Online solving is used most extensively by students in quantitative fields like engineering and economics, which may be due to heavier problem-set demands.
Potential Impacts on Learning
As online solving services integrate into academic norms, urgent questions arise around their impact on learning:
Erosion of Content Mastery and Cognitive Development
Is it the case that reliance on external solutions undermines students’ own content mastery and cognitive growth? Research in learning science tells us that problem-wrestling and building mental models through effortful practice are necessary to retain concepts and to develop critical thinking capacities as time goes on. Online services that give quick answers that take away struggle can lead students to not really understand the material.
Stunting of Higher-Order Thinking Skills
Does dependence on readily available answers impede the development of students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills? To strengthen your ability to develop the capacity to do complex analysis and creative conceptual thinking, you have to practice developing your understanding of challenges and problem-solving as independent processes.
Impact on Mindsets Around Struggle
How could the usage of online solution services change students' attitudes and readiness to push through academic problems over time? Learning always includes difficulty, but internet tools let students avoid it. Does sidestepping difficult challenges lead to over-reliance and support ideas that pupils cannot tackle challenges on their own?
Research Examining Impacts
A fledgling body of research has begun investigating these questions using surveys, interviews, and data analysis. Key findings include:
Mixed Motivations
Students use online solving services for diverse reasons beyond seeking an easy way out. Motivations range from plugging gaps in understanding to gaining efficiency to reduce their workload.
Lower Concept Retention
Students randomly assigned to use online solving services perform worse on concept inventories than peers who complete homework independently. Access to solved examples appears to undermine retention.
Poorer Preparation
Students who use online solving struggle more frequently on exams, suggesting dependence on external answers fails to build exam readiness. They also earn lower scores on conceptual test questions.
No Difference in Persistence
While some worry that online solving may dampen perseverance, studies have found no differences in grit or persistence mindsets between users and non-users. Self-reliance is unaffected.
Potential Long-Term Costs
Research signals using online solving as a substitute for grappling through problems on one’s own can hinder skill development. Over time, these costs may compound into significant learning gaps.
No Consensus Yet
More research is still needed to understand the nuances of how online solving impacts subsets of students differently. Conclusions remain mixed on costs and benefits.
Implications for Educators and Schools
As online solving use grows ubiquitous, educators face dilemmas in how to respond. Most teachers oppose these services yet struggle to curb their use. Potential strategies include:
- Make outsourcing solutions more difficult by adjusting assignments and assessments.
- Create increase scaffolding and support for foundational concepts to reduce gaps in understanding.
- It’s time to create growth mindsets and normalize struggle around learning challenges.
- Use technology to raise the step of interactive learning and personal feedback.
- Prevent cheating by allowing no access to smartphones during exams and use proctoring tools.
A small number of institutions have attempted to ban online solving access outright. However, realistically, most schools recognize that prohibition is unlikely to succeed, given the accessibility of these tools online.
The Path Ahead
Online solving services seem poised to expand further as education grows more digitally connected. The market size is to be USD 8.97 billion in 2023, with projections indicating it could expand to USD 23.73 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 14.9%
Still, their long-term effects are unknown and most likely depend on how well teachers adjust. Schools might perhaps use the efficiency gains of online solutions while reducing any costs to mastery by means of careful regulations and assistance.
Conclusion
Online solution services have quickly entered academia and caused both schools' and students' learning conventions to be seriously questioned. Clear data points indicate that depending too much on outside solutions might hinder critical thinking and idea retention. However, when utilized sensibly, these instruments might have some advantages in terms of filling in gaps and lightening effort.
One thing is abundantly evident from research: the age of online solutions has come with complicated consequences. Teachers, legislators, and students themselves will have to consider challenging issues on how to adjust to this new technological reality developing within and beyond the classroom.
