Maybe the party that detects and decides on consequences for plagiarism should be a separate entity in the university. Like the internal affairs division in police departments that ordinary police officers hate so much in movies and tv-series. They would be an "external enemy", so the teaching staff would not have to suffer from friction with their students in these unpleasant matters, and also the consequences would be out of hands of the teachers.
Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science
71–80 of 124 posts
Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science
#72Here's the easiest solution: stop grading homework Why judge student performance on something that they are using _to learn_? It doesn't make any sense. Every student is basically competing with one another to get the highest GPA possible - if you're going to give them cookie cutter homework with solutions can be easily searched for on the internet _and_ can only bring their GPA down, then they're going to cheat. Pla…
But then where does your grade come from? More testing doesn’t seem like a good solution.
lab work.
Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science
#73Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can still grade the homework (to give both lecturers and students feedback), but just have it not count towards the kids letter grade in the course. If no one is doing it, then you could make the grade for homework pass / fail: did you hand something gradeable in or not?
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.
Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Here's the easiest solution: stop grading homework Because it's not that simple. These are INTRO classes. For many students, an intro CS class may be the first class they have encountered in their lives in which they finally have to work . So, part of the job of a teacher is to teach the class material but also to teach good studying habits. Without grading homework, the first real feedback that a student is in tro…
Not sure if you missed it, or I'm misunderstanding you, but he wrote: > Give them homework and "grade it" to give them feedback which addresses your main point.
It doesn't address the point. Homework that doesn't count won't get done, so won't provide feedback.
Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science
#76Here's the easiest solution: stop grading homework Why judge student performance on something that they are using _to learn_? It doesn't make any sense. Every student is basically competing with one another to get the highest GPA possible - if you're going to give them cookie cutter homework with solutions can be easily searched for on the internet _and_ can only bring their GPA down, then they're going to cheat. Pla…
Optional homework almost definitely won't get done. Making it count ensures that students would actually do it, which is useful to instructors (what do they need to focus on in class? Is the class understanding the lectures?).
> almost definitely won't get done.
While I believe "almost definitely" is a bit too strong, one of the most important lessons undergraduates need to learn asap is learning how to learn effectively. Homework is only a tool that can be very helpful when learning, but it's not the only tool available.
> which is useful to instructors
That's nice, but it's the instructor's job to serve serve the students.
> Is the class understanding the lectures?
In most classes, this should be easy to determine simply from interacting with the students in class, the questions they ask during office hours, etc.
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The ideal instructor should offer regular homework problems/projects that are clear examples of what the students will be expected to know, and check the work of anybody that wants to take advantage of the instructor's knowledge. However, if a student feels their time would be better spent elsewhere[1], that's their business.
The exam will reveal if they made a good decision. Like any skill, many students will make mistakes when they first attempt this kind of project/time management. Fortunately, as undergraduates, the consequences of failure are usually having to retake the class. Later in life, failure may mean losing a job or other far more damaging consequences.
(For the record, when I was an undergraduate at UC Davis, many classes had optional homework. I spent a lot of time working on it for some classes, and others I skipped because it was trivial compared to what I was doing every day at my job.)
[1] e.g. other classes, a job, their own self-study, or maintaining friendships at a social event
Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Optional homework almost definitely won't get done. Making it count ensures that students would actually do it, which is useful to instructors (what do they need to focus on in class? Is the class understanding the lectures?).
> Optional homework almost definitely won't get done. Then they fail? I don't mean to sound glib, but I don't see the issue here. Students that want to pass will pass, students that don't, won't. I say this as a student that didn't pass.
Really depends on the goal. Is the goal to teach everyone in the class? If so, "just let them fail" is a poor strategy. (It's also one that will get the teacher bad performance reviews.)
Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure if you missed it, or I'm misunderstanding you, but he wrote: > Give them homework and "grade it" to give them feedback which addresses your main point.
It doesn't address the point. Homework that doesn't count won't get done, so won't provide feedback.
Exactly. I have tried "Voluntary Homework" with even upper level classes--it doesn't work.
I generally put homework at about 5% of grade. You can avoid doing it and still get the grade you want, but it's a bit of an obstacle. And most decent students will do the homework anyhow.
Intro classes don't get that option. I put it at about 25% of the grade.
Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science
#79I co-teach an upper-level undergraduate class where the students create independent programming projects - the computer science students couldn't copy anyone else in the class's code even if they wanted to, as it wouldn't make any sense for their context.
Perhaps the solution is to be more creative with how computer science education is taught? If the students are copying homework problems they don't understand, they're not going to do well on the projects or exams that might be part of the rest of their grade.
Re: Why we still can't stop plagiarism in undergraduate computer science
#80Heh. I wanted to store my old university coursework somewhere, and GitHub seemed as good a place as any. Because I'm cheap and don't want to pay for a private repo, there it sits in all its public glory. Few years back I got an irate email from a professor that students were copying a program I wrote for a SPARC assembly course which has remained unchanged for, like, two decades. So, to some degree the whole plagiari…
People are turning in your SPARC assembly code for their assignments? Are they actually still teaching SPARC assembly?