According to an ongoing study of more than 2400 students in 11 lecture courses by researchers at Rutgers University, students who received higher homework but lower exam scores were more likely to get their homework answers from the Internet or another source than coming up with the answer themselves.

Not surprisingly, the frequency with which the higher homework grades + lower exam grades pairing occurs has grown over time, from 14 percent in 2008, to 55 percent in 2017 as the use of the Internet for homework help has become more common.

Bottom-line for teachers: Design homework so that simple Google searches won't provide cut-and-paste answers.

Bottom-line for students and parents: Think and generate your own an answer to homework assignments before jumping to the Internet.