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>>"Is there any disadvantage to cheating on an anonymous website course (other than personally not knowing the material)?"

Is there any advantage to cheating in Coursera? Coursera doesn't offer certification.

>>Is the answer truly "U.S. academic institutions are infallible and the world must comply to our standards?"

No the answer is "Students shouldn't be plagiarizing because they won't get any of the benefit from actually doing their homework."

>"Is there any advantage to cheating in Coursera? Coursera doesn't offer certification."

Yeah. I thought the whole purpose of the open courseware initiative was placing the learning of content ahead of the "credit". If you choose to cheat, who cares? You are only hurting yourself.

Coursera emails you a certificate of completion when you finish a course. From comments in their discussion forums, it seems like some students are using these certificates to get partial credit towards courses at their own university, or to show to employers as a proof of their development, etc. So unfortunately there is an incentive for some people to cheat on the courses.

Maybe to promote the "learning over credit" model, Coursera shouldn't attempt to stop any kind of plagiarism. This would make the certificate essentially worthless, which would promote learning only for the sake of learning.

That purpose doesn't obviate social proof.

Coursera is based in the US and taught by US professors. Their teaching methods are based on US societal norms because that's what they believe to be most effective. If you disagree, you're free to not take their classes. You're also free to take your unique insight into cross-cultural education and start a competing site that embraces cheating - I'm sure the students from China/India/"Over There" that you stereotyped as cheaters will abandon Coursera in droves and flock to you. Good luck!

Honour codes do work-- see Ariely's book on honesty: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062183591?ie=UTF8&camp... (quote from blurb: Ariely argues, and then demonstrates, that it's actually the irrational forces that we don't take into account that often determine whether we behave ethically or not.)

Also, cheating on an exam is a classic tragedy of the commons-- if everyone did it, course grades are meaningless. And yes, this comment has rather misinformed views of "over there".

> You can't compare the motives of an upper middle class suburban American kid with the popular view of China/India/"Over There" where everything is copied, cheated, and broken down in a dog-eat-dog society.

Wow, you just insulted a significant chunk of the HN readership.

EDIT: You should carefully consider your words before you speak, and perhaps also re-consider your values and opinion of other cultures.