Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science • Hacker News Board

Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science

#121

Post by wink » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 11:43 AM UTC

macintux wrote: post #4

I was teaching the lab portion of CS 101 (don't remember the actual course number off-hand) when I discovered that two students had the same remarkable code that shouldn't have worked but did. We were using C, and instead of using globals or parameters, each function declared the same local variables in the same order. The stack, then, remained sufficiently consistent that each function had access to the values it ne…

I am equally confused as well. It's been a while since I studied CS, but when stuff was to be handed in on paper we even had multiple names on it (which was allowed, but like only up to 4) and when it was switched to digital handin, why wouldn't you submit the same thing twice, with both names on it.

Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science

#122

Post by emidln » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 5:30 PM UTC

leetcrew wrote: post #67

emidln wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add a grading section to each assignment with something like this: --------- Program is expected to maintain this interface over stdin/stdout (or sockets, etc). Students will pass when their program passes the grading/test suite. Test suite can be check ahead of time by uploading binary/zip/tarball to this location using their student id: . Detailed instructions . IIRC, this is what my university did 15 years ago. No…

as a TA, i love when professors set up grading scripts for me, and as a student, i love knowing what grade i will get before turning in the assignment. unfortunately, you need the students to have the basic level of competency where they can actually write code to a testable interface or correctly use print statements to produce good enough output for a script to grade by parsing. in the course i currently TA, neithe…

It sounds like students who can't program need to be offered/forced into a 099-level class on whatever language or languages are being used for pedagogical purposes prior to actual CS classes. We don't let students who can't handle Algebra and Geometry take Calculus classes and we shouldn't suffer students who can't generate compiling code in CS classes. I made most of my money in college because such a class didn't exist.

Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science

#123

Post by kthejoker2 » Mon, Mar 26, 2018, 4:10 PM UTC

zrobotics wrote: post #95

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends what you’re writing. I’d expect a student to write code for data structures and sort algorithms themselves. Not sure how well plagiarism detection would work though...

Isn't that the point of these courses anyway? Unless you have very, very good reasons, why would you ever write your own bubble sort professionally outside of niche cases? But having to implement different sorts by hand makes it much clearer how they differ, as well teaching basic algorithm knowledge.

Exactly. We make every third grader look up and write down important dates and people from the past, even though they're already written down write there in the book they're looking at - it's not about the dates and people, it's about how to look things up.

Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science

#124

Post by compsciphd » Mon, Mar 26, 2018, 6:20 PM UTC

dpark wrote: post #74

compsciphd wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or have it count to a small part of the grade. Basically, perhaps construct a class like this 1) HW 20% of the grade 2) Quiz (say 1 Q a week related to homework that was returned a week ago, give students a chance to figure out what they did wrong) - say 20% of grade 3) midterm and final, a 30/30 or 20/40 split. one can adjust the percentages to achieve one's desired pedagogical goals. personally, I don't find copyin…

> 2) Quiz (say 1 Q a week related to homework that was returned a week ago, give students a chance to figure out what they did wrong) - say 20% of grade I never had quizzes except from professors who issued them to keep attendance up. Quizzes by nature are short and shallow. At the college level they are not particularly useful for establishing understanding.

ok, that's reasonable response. and as other commentator said, not enough time as it is os takaing 10-20m out of a lecture isn't good.