Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

pastebin.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 182 posts

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#101

Post by ramblerman »

jordanthoms wrote: post #11
prophetjohn wrote: post #5

I have to wonder if those posting solutions on github are actually doing it in an effort to cheat. I made a similar mistake recently with a project I completed in my computer architecture course. When the professor contacted me about it, it seemed obvious. But at the time, all I was thinking about was "yay, public code!" Obviously, I took it down right away. I wonder how many people are doing the same thing. Cheating…

If it's your work, you own the copyright, and it's totally within your rights to make it publicly available.

What a stupid, overly defensive sentiment.

That's like using free speech as a motivation to tell your boss to "Go fuck himself"

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#102

Post by ecyrb »

One of the hints for assignment 2 is:

"Most of the solutions for this assignment can be written as one-liners. If you have more, you probably need to rethink your solution. In other words, this assignment needs more thinking (whiteboard, pen and paper) than coding ;-)."

Is it not entirely possible that they're getting some false positives?

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#103

Post by learc83 »

wpietri wrote: post #87
pawelwentpawel wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wondering - would you put a certificate from Coursera on your resume? I raised this question a while ago in here : http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/2074/showing-co... Also - cases will be handled on an individual basis - I guess it's not a standard sized class. There is a few hundred people signed up at least. Putting up a free course in functional programming seems like a lot of work. On top of that…

As an employer, I take continuing education of any sort as a positive sign when looking at resumes. Software development is a Red Queen field; one has to keep up. However, I do take most certifications as mild negative signs. E.g., SCJP, CSM, PMP. A lot of for-profit certifications are worthless. A notable exception are some of the Cisco certs, which really put people through their paces. Which makes sense, as Cisco…

Considering that the Coursera certificates require you to take a class (usually taught by experts in the respective field) as opposed to cramming for a certification exam, I'd say it's a good bit more valuable.

I took the first AI class last Fall, and if you've never been exposed to the material, it was a very good survey of Artificial Intelligence.

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#104

Post by ramblerman »

benmanns wrote: post #65

The fact that people publicly posting their work would get expelled disappoints me. During the Machine Learning class on Coursera, I did all of the programming exercises myself. After submitting the assignments and getting 100% scores, I would browse other people's GitHub repositories to see how they completed the assignment, which taught me more about both Octave syntax and machine learning and helped me to vectoriz…

" For those students for whom it's been discovered have uploaded similar or duplicate solutions, cases will be handled on an individual basis. Though beware, that cheating in any capacity not be tolerated. "

This seems like pretty clear language. I doubt people who accidently used a public repo will be punished for it.

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#105

Post by Bootvis »

blaines wrote: post #85
eneveu wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember being presented with the Honor Code directly when I started the course. I don't remember if it was a popup or during the introduction video, but it was definitely highlighted.

Oh okay, I took a course and have no memory of being presented with the Honor Code. The one they linked to is in their ToS, it still deserves it's own page.

You have the sign the honor code again when you submit the homework. At least for the course I'm taking.

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#106

Post by Bootvis »

monksy wrote: post #75
Permit wrote: post #31

I'm of the opinion that the value of Coursera's courses comes from the learning opportunity, not the certification. I think they should simply allow cheating and not issue certificates. Alternatively, allow cheating and continue to issue certificates while letting employers decide the true value of the certificates. The point of Coursera (to me) isn't to pad my resume, it's to learn from courses not always offered at…

What employer takes Coursera classes seriously?

At this moment: very few but I imagine this will change in the near future and that Coursera is betting on this. That, off course, requires strict enforcement of the rules.

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#107

Post by pohl »

A lot of comments here are suggesting that the staff should allow the violations of the academic honesty rules and deal with matters by some other means.

It's my understanding that, in this case, this is not possible. There are real students at EPFL who are using the Coursera system to take this very same course for credit. If some random resume-padder creates a public repository on github for doing the homework, then a simple google search by an actual student at EPFL could easily find it.

I don't see how they have any choice but to bring the hammer down.

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#109

Post by rkda »

Bootvis wrote: post #105
blaines wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh okay, I took a course and have no memory of being presented with the Honor Code. The one they linked to is in their ToS, it still deserves it's own page.

You have the sign the honor code again when you submit the homework. At least for the course I'm taking.

I second this. Should make most people uncomfortable with cheating. Those who go through are ones who don't give a shit.

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#110

Post by jellicle »

nicksergeant wrote: post #55
namank wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, thats harsh. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone slips. Making mistakes is an integral part of iterating towards the better.

"Cheating" is not "making a mistake".

Making categorical declarations about what is in actuality an extraordinarily large range of grey areas is not useful to discussion.
Post reply on HN