What is “cheating” in Computer Science courses? Akshaye Dhawan courtesy April Kontostathis

Motivation for this presentation Students, even experienced students, “cross the line” sometimes when preparing assignments Electronic nature of the discipline makes it easy and natural to share program code Computer Science culture makes sharing code an acceptable practice

but … You cannot learn the concepts unless you develop code from scratch Often students will approach problems from different points of view (both of which are right). This may make it difficult to really understand code that you have ‘borrowed.’ Academic setting requires independent learning –Corporate/research environment has different rules

Question 1 True or False: Copying a paper on Dante from the web and submitting it as CIE I paper number 3 is considered plagiarism. –TRUE

Question 1a True or False: Downloading a c++ program that averages a list of test grades and submitting it as CS173 HW 7 is considered plagiarism. –TRUE

Question 2 Would copying paragraphs from three different papers for a writing assignment in ENGL 100 be permitted? –No! This is still plagiarism.

Question 2a Would copying sections of c++ code from three different programs be permitted? –No! This is still plagiarism.

Question 3 Can you give your math homework to another student and let him/her copy the answers to the problems? –No – clearly cheating, right?

Question 3a Can you give your working program to another student so she/he see how you did the assignment in CS 173? –No – it is NEVER permissible to give anyone an (electronic or paper) copy of your program

Question 4 It is four a.m. and I am stuck on my programming assignment. My roommate is still up (working on that chem paper). Can I ask her for help? –Yes, as long as you’ve made an effort and she is merely trying to explain the concept – not do the work for you.

Question 5 All right then. I’ve got the program written, but the Gosh Darn thing won’t compile (or compiles but doesn’t get the right answer). The help desk is closed. What can I do? – me. Make sure you attach the program to the and a screenshot of your error –Ask someone for help, but you CANNOT the program to him/her. They must be in the room with you. –Turn in an imperfect product for partial credit

Question 6 You have a gazillion example problems on the web site, and there are examples in the book too! Can I at least use copies of these programs when I do my homework? –Absolutely! The author and I have provided these examples as starting points for you. I can assure you that the assignments you will be asked to complete will be sufficiently different.