[DavidWoof]

I feel like you're missing something basic. The professor classifies this as a "cheating site", and his entire article assumes this classification, but the site portrays itself as a study aid. If we skip the editorializing, what the professor actually did was seed misinformation on the Internet to see who would fall for it.

Would you feel differently if he had edited the Wikipedia page for his subject to see which students used it as a study aid?

The equation of "you found this info on the Internet instead of in the approved course material and therefore you're cheating" doesn't seem completely solid to me.

[prox]

The pirate bay might describe itself as a software sharing website, it’s kind of a moot point what they describe themselves as in that sense.

The students are still responsible for what they take in outside of the materials provided. Wikipedia is even at the best of times not always correct. I see lot of people waving the responsibility of students away.

The students took a chance, knowing fully well what the site is and does, and they got burned. Own it and take the burn.

[ineedasername]

I honestly didn’t know it was a cheating site. I use it with my grade school kids to help them, find novel exercises on the topics they’re working on, etc.

I can’t be the only one who uses it as the resource it presents itself to be.

[Plasmoid]

Reading a copy of a previous test is not considered cheating.

If the site had copies of upcoming tests that would be cheating. But previous tests might as well be considered public knowledge.

[asielen]

Agreed, also college kids are trained to study old tests to get into college. SAT prep and AP test prep is basically all previous test review.

I think it somewhat depends on how the test was presented on the site. Was it presented as a previous test or was it presented as "top secret" upcoming test? I remember a few college tests that had questions straight from the book example questions. Is it cheating that I remembered them?