Students Find New Ways to Buy Time

By Connect2Mason Correspondent Rachael Dickson

A Web site selling corrupted files to students so they can buy more time on assignments is creating a buzz in the educational blog world.

The owner of Corrupted-Files.com, a site that sells bogus files for $3.95 to be sent to teachers so students can continue work on the assignments, has decided to stay anonymous in all of his interviews – maybe to buy more time.

“A ton of high school teachers are asking for my blood,” wrote the site owner who signed only CF in his e-mail. “You should see the e-mails I receive, it’s quite shameful and ignorant. However, everyone in the business world finds this humorous and clever.”

CF, 25, claims he made the Web site, which he calls “a joke turned into a social experiment,” in three hours while watching old episodes of Seinfeld.

“If I had any inspiration, it was George Costanza, the sad king of excuses,” CF said.

CF launched the site in December and declined to disclose any monetary statistics. He doesn’t think the site encourages cheating.

“It minimizes plagiarism, which I feel is grounds for suspension, and simply buys the student time if he or she was not able to get an extension,” he wrote. “Corrupted-Files.com turns time into a commodity and nothing more, we do not condone submitting work that is not your own.”

Now that CF’s Web site is getting attention the service may not be as valuable.

Mills Kelly, History professor at George Mason University, said that if he received a corrupted file for an assignment, he would check the file properties to find out more details and possibly take action.

“Were I able to verify that a student of mine used this service and turned in a corrupted file with the intention of gaining time on an assignment, I would refer the student to the Honor Committee immediately with the recommendation that he/she fail the course,” Kelly said.

One professor prefers old-school methods to make sure technology doesn’t get the edge.

“This is one of those situations highlighting that technology is not always better and the reason I still request students hand in their assignments in person,” Mason Journalism Law professor Kevin Goldberg said. “By requiring the students - unless there is some extenuating circumstance - to come to class and hand in a printed product, there is no possibility of using a service like this to ‘buy’ time.”

Some students think it’s an unjust shortcut or even not worth the money.

“This type of thing should not be tolerated as it simply teaches students today that you only have to obey the rules if you have not found a way around them yet,” said Daniel Ladishew, a former Richland College student from Dallas.

Dan Pearce, a Brunel University graduate studying engineering in London, said it’s not hard to corrupt a file so students can save their money.

“You don’t have to buy a file like this,” Pearce said. “The Web site is a scam really. Just take something that isn’t a document, like a picture for example, and change the file extension to .doc.”

Lauryn Yarn, a rising junior at Baylor University, believed the students are on the losing end of this business.

“If a student is really desperate enough to have to buy something like this for time and lack of knowledge than how to do it themselves, then they’ll end up screwing their education or career over on their own eventually,” Yarn said. “Why not let them get a head-start?”

CF defended his product and its ability to save the day - even if used only once.

“Personally, I would rather have the student do the assignment late and not cheat or fail,” he wrote. “I don't think anyone is foolish enough to use the same excuse twice,” he said. “What are the odds of 2 assignments becoming corrupted? Well...1/100 if you’re using Vista.”

This article was originally published byUWIRE.