Students struggling late at night to complete a physics or engineering assignment are turning to a controversial Web site for assistance.In the past year, more and more University students have been logging on to Cramster.com. Since the beginning of this school year, more than 2,500 University students have joined the site, and this growing membership on campus has made LSU the fourth-highest university in Web site usage, according to Aaron Hawkey, CEO and founder of Cramster.com.As a city, Baton Rouge ranks No. 6 nationally in usage.The Web site provides solution manuals for a wide range of science, math, engineering and business books. The manuals are mostly generated by the Cramster’s staff, but a small percentage are created by other users. The Web site also allows students to post lecture notes and quizzes to provide students with extra help in classes.”Our most helpful feature is that a student can not only view the content on our Web site, but they can ask questions on it and interact with other students and educators that gives them info on the content,” Hawkey said. Adel Alizadeh, civil engineering junior, had an overall C average when he began using Cramster.com. After using Cramster for a year, his homework average has improved to an A, and his test average improved a letter grade. Alizadeh said the program has been a “life saver” because he has used it responsibly, and the solution manuals online often have step-by-step explanations on how to complete the problem. “The manuals not only help me with my homework, but they provide more references when I study for my exams,” Alizadeh said. While Alizadeh said he mainly uses the site as a study tool, he does admit occasionally uses the site to just get the homework done quickly without learning the material. “[The Web site] can just give you the answer, and that is were you can start to abuse Cramster,” Alizadeh said. “You start becoming dependent on it, and you look at it constantly, and you don’t try to do the work yourself so you don’t learn it because you are just getting your homework done.”This ability to use the program as a crutch has concerned University officials and professors.Saundra McGuire, director of the Center for Academic Success, has counseled students who use Cramster and said she has seen no situation in which Cramster positively affected a student’s learning. Though Cramster often shows students steps to get the answers, the Web site makes students rely on external aids rather than teaching them problem-solving skills. The site makes students memorize the information and simply regurgitate it rather than becoming a better thinker and problem solver, McGuire said.”We are really just trying to simulate a study group online so there is no difference in sitting in a study hall with your buddies going over homework and what we provide with Cramster,” Hawkey said.Roy Knight, petroleum engineering sophomore, said he has seen an improvement in both his homework and test scores because of Cramster. However, he said he has observed professors are now excluding homework from contributing to the final grade because of sites like Cramster.”What I do is try to make homework a component that will not make or break you,” said chemical engineering professor Karsten Thompson. “You want to avoid a situation where a person fails the exams but makes a 97 average on homework bringing his grade up a letter grade.”Philip Adams, physics professor, has designed his course with no homework in the final grade because he said it’s not fair to give a student even a small amount of points if the student is not doing the work.While both professors said the site could potentially harm students’ test scores if abused to complete the homework with little thinking, they agree it is the students’ responsibility to use the site as a tool to study rather than a crutch to complete homework easily. “At the end of the day, the student who wants to do the minimum is going to find a way to do the minimum,” Hawkey said.—-Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]