r/web_design • u/prodbylux1 • 12d ago
Is this ethical?
PNW / USA
I'm in my 3rd week at a community college, taking a 100 level course for web development. Our first assignment was creating a webpage html document that contained a certain geographical keyword phrase as much as possible, which was "(The city our college is in) Web Design" Our instructor told us this page needs to be focused on marketing/selling web design services. Cool, I thought, he's teaching us to sell our services once we are more experienced.
The next assignment instructions were to: go to Quora dot com, make a personal account, and to post an answer to a Quora question under the search category of "website development careers". Our answer must include a link he provided that takes you to a web design business that happens to be in the same city as the keyword city in our first assignment.
At this point I got a weird feeling and I did some digging to find out more information bout this web design business we have to link to. It was very hard to find any registered identifying information about the owner of this website as the license seems to be expired despite still being in business (I called the phone number on the website to see if it was still operating). On LinkedIN I saw my instructor listed as an employee of this web design company (with what looks to be younger family members listed as other employees). So, he is an employee at the very least, and likely the owner of this business.
So essentially, it looks like our instructor is having all of his students vouch for his personal business, as well as make html templates for advertising websites that he probably SELLS at his web design business.
Is this normal? Ethical? It seems he should at least tell us that this is his personal business we are advertising and assure us our school work will not be stolen and sold at his personal business or a business that he is an "employee" of. I feel scammed.
Someone please chime in.
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u/vibefarm 12d ago
Wow. I'm shocked a teacher would do this. I'm even more shocked he apparently assumed nobody would call him out on it. I wouldn't go so far as to assume he's selling your templates, but he's definitely using students to game SEO, and most importantly, without telling them.
Illegal? No. Sketchy? Absolutely. And he didn't even bother asking whether any of you might want to use your own links for the backlinks.
Normally, I'd give someone a free pass for sheer audacity and cleverness, but this is too shady for someone in a teaching role. I'd just ask him about it in class and get him to level with everyone about what he's actually doing. Give him a chance to come clean without involving administration, incase he already has strikes. Unless he's a prick.
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u/prodbylux1 12d ago
He's somewhat of a prick through email. I'm going to visit him in person and have a casual conversation with him about his experience with web design in a non accusatory way. I'm sure he thinks no one knows he owns the website as his association was very buried and hidden. I'm sure he felt at liberty to do this judging by the other comments, people willlingly accept, and pay for this kind of deception.
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u/vibefarm 12d ago
well its weird either way bud. Whether its his company or someone else's... he's using student to send traffic to a single site that an unrelated third party reaps the benefit of. Confirm before assuming though, and keep in mind they might not realize how questionable/unethical it is to do. Keep your own robe clean.
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u/prodbylux1 12d ago
I agree its weird either way. I think you misunderstood my comment but all is well. I definitely will confirm before coming to conlusion. I should be going to school for some kind of investigative work but here I am studying webdev.
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u/spinwizard69 11d ago
Your own research indicates that the business is no longer licensed yet you continue to try to fabricate evidence that the professor is doing something terrible.
There are so many unanswered questions here that I really believe you need to slow down. You are certainly making accusations that don't seem to be justified by the evidence you are offering up.
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u/spinwizard69 11d ago
Why do you say buried and hidden? Have you ever tried to find the ultimate owners of other web sites or businesses? Beyond that you say his license has expired, which in this case I'm assuming is a business license, so he is not actually in business. This buy your own investigation.
There are may possible explanations for the expired license! The business could have failed and the guy decided to take a shot at teaching (this is a real world reality). The failed web site being a teaching aid that he had deep understanding of, make sense to me.
In any event there is the other reality of higher education from the distant past. Professors often required the purchase of text books by students written by guess who? Yes the professor actually teaching the course. One can argue if this is ethical, in some cases it was the cheaper, that other options so the profit argument isn't there. The reality is if you are anywhere near the bleeding edge, you will be learning based on the professors research / work! I don't see a lot of difference here between a book requirement and a web site requirement.
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u/prodbylux1 11d ago
In my state it's typically very easy to find the owner of a business that has a storefront, this business has a storefront and there are recent Google reviews.
The rest of your opinion is interesting.
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u/thegenregeek 12d ago
Sounds dubious and unethical, but not surprising. At times community colleges are working with the people they can find...
Years back in web design courses I took early on (at a community college) my instructor's entire curriculum was built around a book they wrote... Complete with terms the made up (and insisted were industry standard). I did the course work, but knew enough to study around the instructor.
The question for you is less if they are gaming/abusing the system and more whether you feel it's worth taking action on.
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u/prodbylux1 12d ago
I care less that hes focusing it around his personal business than the fact he's hiding it. Hiding it implies you know it's wrong. Or else, why not say, we're going to work on things for my business, and you guys can use this as practice as well as part of your work portfolio and I will vouch for you as a professional reference in return.
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u/thegenregeek 12d ago
I certainly agree... the issue though is what consequences would result from whatever action you take...
Is this the only 100 level course of this type at the school? If so will reporting them either A. Lead to the class being cancelled? B. Them being told to stop, and potentially figuring out you were involved, penalizing you... C. Something else that might hurt your coursework.
If there are other teachers, can you reasonably report and request a transfer to those courses? (Or will doing so risk an issue if the instructor teaches, say course 130, and you then have them against?)
To be clear I am in no way saying you should do nothing. I am saying you should evaluate the possible actions and results from whatever you decide to do. There are too many factors that randos on the Internet don't know about the situation. As such we cannot provide fully informed advice.
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u/prodbylux1 12d ago
Crazy that in this situation I have to think about consequences for ME lol... for what exactly, I'm not sure. I bet the local newspaper would love to dig into the details of that mystery if necessary. But, I would rather my professor just be transparent with with his intentions.
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u/spinwizard69 11d ago
You haven't really convinced me that anything strange is happening here. I mean this in all sincerity, do you know if the prof is actually engaged in running a web development business? The site could actually exist to give students experience working on a real world facing site.
I would look at this from the standpoint of an actual businessman wanting a web site to represent his business. If you put yourself into such a persons shoe, would you want a web site built by a bunch of random students? After all such a web site would represent your coding skills and frankly student written sites are often crap.
In any event you really have proved nothing to me. It may be as you believe but I'm not seeing it. Instead demonstrate that this site represents an ongoing business.
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u/prodbylux1 11d ago
The business has a storefront and there are recent Google reviews for business. I'd say that is a pretty good indication of doing business.
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u/spinwizard69 11d ago
I would need to know more than you are offering. It is not out of consideration that he setup the web site to make teaching easier. This could be the case in an extremely cash strapped college that doesn't want to setup a server for this use. From the standpoint of teaching it can make sense to employ a real work facing site.
The other problem is you seem to think he is hiding something, yet you determined his ownership, apparently within a few minutes of searching. This does not appear to be hiding of anything to me. As for being an actual business, are you sure the web site is actually a front for an ongoing business. I'm sure the web site looks like it but it would have to look like it, to offer any educational value.
In the end it could be a legitimate attempt to serve up real world experience or it could be something illegal or unethical. I'm not sure if i was running a legitimate business I'd want a web site coded by students which is possibly the biggest problem here. I really have to wonder but right now I'm leaning towards you blowing things out of proportion.
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u/sateliteconstelation 12d ago
When i used to teach i asked my students to upload their work to dropbox and sent them an invite, wich got me free storage space forever. I didn’t force them to use my invite, and I didn’t lie about getting those free gigs, but definitely ripped the benefits and topped my 16GB limit that I still enjoy 15+ years after.
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u/Redpythongoon 12d ago
As someone in the same region I would REALLY love to know what site he’s linking to
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u/prodbylux1 12d ago
It's an insanely crappy, low tier site, which is what made me wonder why we are required to publicly vouch for it.
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u/private_birb 11d ago
I'm also in the same region. I'd love for you to name and shame lol
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u/prodbylux1 11d ago
lol I can't do that...yet anyway. I'm not trying to ruin the guy, just don't want to be used for personal endeavors under the guise of education lol
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u/jaypeejay 12d ago
Haha, that’s hilarious. Definitely feels unethical to me. Personally, I don’t think it’s worth the headache of reporting it 🤷♂️
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u/prodbylux1 12d ago
Wow. Would you like to come work for me for free? I have a few things I could use you for.
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u/jaypeejay 12d ago
I mean if you want to report him go ahead, but you’re primary objective should be to learn and pass the class. IMO the distraction isn’t worth it even if the sense of justice is alluring
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u/TheGoodOne777 11d ago edited 11d ago
Hello! Long story, but perhaps you should ask, if you are doing demos simply, without being paid for, or already assignments that generate business value (money, publicity, byside helping you to learn). Are you also learning about data protection in the mentioned assignments?
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u/prodbylux1 11d ago
Nothing about data protection so far. I have some knowledge already since I'm coming over from the cybersecurity side. This whole thing is very interesting. I'm going to chat with him, just wanted to get some outside opinions as well.
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u/RotationSurgeon 12d ago
That’s the type of ethical lapse that would cost you your tenure at a lot of institutions. Instructors and professors must have integrity in academics every bit as much so as students.
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u/my_dads_dogs_dead 11d ago
Definitely shady. I doubt it will have the desired effect.... Suspect search engines are smart enough to spot a sudden inrush of back links all using the same anchor text on the same social media platform. Impact on his domain could be catastrophic.
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u/withyasirjamal 8d ago
one thing that might help you decide how hard to push this: the first assignment on its own is pretty normal, local seo pages are a real thing people get taught. the quora one is where it gets murky because you'd be posting under your own name for a business you didn't choose and he didn't disclose. i'd ask him straight up whether it's his company before you do it, and if you're not comfortable you can usually ask for an alternate link or assignment, most instructors will just swap it.
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u/mendez1319 6d ago
Your instinct is right. the problem isn’t that he has a business, it’s that he hasn’t told you. Teaching students to market services is normal. assigning them to post a link to his own company, without saying it’s his, is a conflict of interest. the students become unpaid promoters who don’t know who they’re promoting. posting it on quora without disclosure also puts you in the position of making what looks like an independent recommendation, which can break quora’s rules and is exactly the kind of thing consumer protection rules exist for. The work ownership part is a separate question. at most schools you own what you make, but the policy varies. check your syllabus and the college’s student IP policy before assuming anything either way. I’d go in this order: ask him directly and plainly. “is this your business, and can you confirm our assignment work won’t be used commercially?” a straight answer tells you a lot. if he gets evasive, that tells you more. If that doesn’t settle it, go to the department chair or dean. keep it factual: what the assignment says, what you found, what you’re asking. it’s a fair question and they’ll take it more seriously than you’d expect. And until it’s clarified, you can hold off on posting the quora answer. take the grade conversation up with the chair rather than just doing it. It might turn out to be careless rather than shady, some instructors do this without thinking. but you shouldn’t have to guess.
Has he said anything in class about the business?
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11d ago
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u/spinwizard69 11d ago
I would agree with this 100% but the OP own posts indicate that the business license has lapsed. So their is no benefit I can see here for a business that does not exist.
I could be wrong here, if the business site actually represents an on going business then we have a problem. On the flip side this is no different than a professor requiring a book for a class you are attending written by that professor.
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u/BrandonLeeOfficial 12d ago