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So basically, I have my own personal site where I write about what I learn and study. I use it to write notes and details on what I am working on.

I specifically try to avoid posting anything directly copied from class and anything that included what rightfully belongs to the professor i.e. the professor's lecture notes and etc.

The only things I share are my notes taken from the textbook and what I write for the class after it's been graded. Also, the site is hidden from search engines, but can be still found if people have the link (which only 5 people know of and none are classmates).

That being said, is it still immoral to post what I learn and so forth? I do my best to make sure to give rightful credit, but I still doubt the right to share.

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  • What do you mean by "try to avoid posting anything ...[that] rightfully belongs to the professor" - do you post anything that was created by someone else, or not?
    – ff524
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 17:46
  • @ff524 what I mean by try is that I do not write anything directly belonging to someone else, but the thing that I cannot avoid is quoting/paraphrasing the question I respond to in my notes. For example: prompt questions I write responses to. Also, I try to write guidelines on what to study which are based on what the course is teaching and I add what I think are important to read.
    – user103813
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 17:47

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I think in general that what you are doing is without moral implications. You are certainly free to post your own thoughts or your interpretations of what a professor has said in class.

However, it would also be good to talk to your professor and get his/her advice. If you post problems or exam questions you might be, inadvertently, helping others to cheat, which would be unfortunate. The professor might request that you not do that.

Whether you cross over into copyright infringement or not depends on a lot of things. I will guess, but you should verify, that even the professor's notes would be permitted by some, even though they are copyrighted.

But for your own thoughts and words, you are certainly on solid ethical/moral ground. Even if other students find them, it isn't infringing for them to use your thoughts to help mold their own.

As a professor, I put a lot of things online for students to use. I also had mailing lists to which students could share their thoughts and help one another, with few limitations. Making it public/open to all makes it useful and avoids some ethical concerns that might occur (if rarely).

Nor is it unethical for you to simply help fellow students learn through conversations, etc. as long as you don't abet actual cheating. But I see no issues of that in what you describe.

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  • Hi Buffy, thank you the clear and quick response! The one goal I had aimed for the notes and writings were to help some high school friends who were interested in the material. It seemed like it would be a helpful thing and so I started writing. I will definitely ask the professor about it.
    – user103813
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 17:59

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