What Do You Think About Cheating?

[Jzero]

<< i really do not think this student is as innocent as this article makes him out to be. >>


That is very possible.

 

[thraashman]

gopunk, have you ever written code? in an introductory CS class the stuff you learn usually has little variation on how you can do it, so if you discuss concept even with someone, odds are you'll think of exactly the same thing. and these 30 lines ignore if there's a difference in variable names and other things. I take CS at a college in Georgia, and heard about this a while ago, and from what my CS teacher tells me, the program they use to discover cheating can return that you were cheating even if you weren't.

 

[SmirnoffIsTasty]

Jimmy Eat World- Get It Faster

 

[Spendthrift]

i was a CS major my freshman year of college. my college allowed us to work in teams on homework. i almost always worked with one of my friends who lived down the hall.

often wed sit in the same room for four or five hours taking turns typing out code. we always worked through the concepts together and both contributed to the assignments. however, we often turned in the exact same code since wed done it together.

in my mind this was a much more valuable experience than doing it all by myself. we were able to explain concepts to each other and learn to try approaches other than our own. i think the GT compsci students are missing out on a valuable part of learning.

 

[gopunk]

gopunk, have you ever written code?

yes, i have... 4.0 and 3.7 in the two intro classes... no cheating either 😛

in an introductory CS class the stuff you learn usually has little variation on how you can do it. so if you discuss concept even with someone, odds are you'll think of exactly the same thing. and these 30 lines ignore if there's a difference in variable names and other things.

30 lines in an intro class is (i'm guessing) one, maybe 2, 3 functions. i don't think that they just happened to write the same code, 30 lines. besides:

The father of the accused freshman says the university did not make clear the difference between discussion, which some of the rules say is okay, and collaboration, which is not.

this seems to indicate collaboration occurred.

I take CS at a college in Georgia, and heard about this a while ago, and from what my CS teacher tells me, the program they use to discover cheating can return that you were cheating even if you weren't.

it's possible. but i suspect that would be a very small minority... i don't think any school would use a program with a high rate of error and flunk students based on it.


but you're right, i have no way of knowing for sure, until i see the code. i just strongly suspect this guy is not so innocent.

 

[notfred]

This kind of crap at colleges is complete BS. Failing for cheating cause you talked to someone else about the asignment for 10 minutes? Do they think anyone's going to get a programmnig job and not have a team to work with? Even if someone does get a job as the solo programmer, is he going to be fired for asking for someone else's (outside his job, perhaps) help?

The idea behind college should be to encourage people to develop intelligence, not to encourage people to be totally solitary.

 

[Anghang]

<< in an introductory CS class the stuff you learn usually has little variation on how you can do it, so if you discuss concept even with someone, odds are you'll think of exactly the same thing >>



agreed...in my first year as a CS major, we were taught all the things we needed to know in order to do our projects...the tasks that our programs had to carry out pretty much utilized everything we've learned up to that point when the assignment was given out...and variables aside, many of the programs did look similar, the professor even stated this and he expected it...the program kind of wrote itself if you get what i saying...not sure how to explain it, but when your tasked with making a program work a certain way and with the knowledge you learn from first year (for me anyway) it seems like there's less than a handful of ways to structure it...

well, that's how it was for me...i'm sure everyone's first year is different in some way regarding the curriculum... 🙂