GitHub/Microsoft know what's up, because they make Copilot free for students, but teachers have to pay for it. The best thing for Copilot is to keep teachers as oblivious as possible.
Coping with Copilot
201–210 of 463 posts
Re: Coping with Copilot
#202While it is true code pilot is quite amazing and can produce some very decent snippets, if the exercice you give is specific enought (using a special database schema, file format, or API), with objectives that are not common (ask the user specific questions, and draw conclusions out of it or react to events), then it cannot produce a fully working program. I use code pilot regularly now, and it does speed up my work,…
As I moved as well, I experienced three different Canadian universities' Computer Science Program. There was only one professor and course that I still remember 20 years later: CS408, Software Engineering, Professor Wortman, UofToronto. Class project was in four phases, cumulative (basic functionality for the application in phase 1, progressively additional functionality in other phases, frequently strongly interacti…
> After each phase, you had to swap your code with another team.
I'd expect that most students would just "rewrite" the code they received from the other team and replace it with their own.
Re: Coping with Copilot
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
As I moved as well, I experienced three different Canadian universities' Computer Science Program. There was only one professor and course that I still remember 20 years later: CS408, Software Engineering, Professor Wortman, UofToronto. Class project was in four phases, cumulative (basic functionality for the application in phase 1, progressively additional functionality in other phases, frequently strongly interacti…
There are a few issues with this kind of assignment. The first issue is that it's really hell on the TAs with all of the administrative work needed to do the swapping between phases. Software engineering is already one of the more annoying classes to TA, and this makes it even less palatable. The bigger issue is that, on the basis of fairness, you grade in later phases is very heavily dependent on factors that are ou…
I think you could remove a lot of your fairness and logistical concerns by at stage N choosing one solution and everyone group has to start from there.
Now for pedagogical purposes it might be that the professor chooses the best solution or a substantially worse solution.
There might be some concern that this unfairly advantages one group over the others but it’s not completely clear to me that it does.
Re: Coping with Copilot
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you also believe that we should move away from evaluation entirely? Genuinely asking.
Evaluation is vital but the current model used in education today is not evaluation, it is punishment. Failed to get the answers right? You are punished. You lose points. Your GPA plummets. You could even fail the class and have to take it again which means the punishment is not only social but economical. There's real life consequences to this kind of evaluation. Huge consequences. Students cannot afford to make mis…
If you define negative evaluations as "punishment", then evaluation without punishment is useless.
Re: Coping with Copilot
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
I left GitHub on the spot, and moved to Source Hut the day Copilot released.
someone can still mirror your stuff on github. I wonder if they should make a special open source license, that disallows use of the source code for the purpose of training something like Copilot.
If it's your creation you can make your own license. Copy and paste a license you like and add a few lines.
This fact solves many "we need this lib but it's too open" problems. The author can make a special license just for you if they want.
Re: Coping with Copilot
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but also class discussions and group participation I really, really hated those parts of school, second only to group projects. I do appreciate why teachers want that, and I hear you about how it can surface those who are cheating, but I do wonder if it's causing the class to suffer for the alleged misdeeds of a few
I disliked them in school, for the usual reasons, but found them the most useful exercises for developing career skills. No person an island. And if they are, I don't want to be on a work team with them.
Is doing other people’s homework for them a career skill?
Re: Coping with Copilot
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wonder if they should make a special open source license, that disallows use of the source code for the purpose of training something like Copilot. Since Microsoft uses material for copilot outside of licensing on the basis that it is Fair Use, that would probably have no effect in practice on whether or not the material is used in training something like Copilot. For that to matter, you’d first have to win a law…
> Since Microsoft uses material for copilot outside of licensing on the basis that it is Fair Use, that would probably have no effect in practice i think that any formal violation of an open source license would be very bad in terms of public relations - even if they can claim fair use.
They got it covered. Passed the responsibility to user in their official documentation.
Re: Coping with Copilot
#208It is not the lecturers job to police their students. People that cheat only end up cheating themselves, and nobody but the cheater should do anything about it.
Re: Coping with Copilot
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
I left GitHub on the spot, and moved to Source Hut the day Copilot released.
someone can still mirror your stuff on github. I wonder if they should make a special open source license, that disallows use of the source code for the purpose of training something like Copilot.
> Someone can still mirror your stuff on github.
It is the nature of the beast, however I make my stance clear and stand by my principles. It is equally important for me.
Re: Coping with Copilot
#210I don't know if the idea of future generations of programmers squeezing by on having a robot make best guesses to get their work done without understanding it makes me feel confident in terms of job security, or fills me with dread knowing that I'll surely be relying on the software they produce to access my bank, have my cars controls hijacked because it thinks it knows better than me, keep my life support running when I'm old, etc.