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Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

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Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#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 a Coursera course just doesn't make much sense.

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#6
You have to expect that they kinds of programmers this course would attract will want stick the code they've put hours outside of work into in some kind of source repository.

With the ubiquity of free (public only) github accounts, I'm not entirely sure what else they expected might happen.

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#7
When discussing online courses, a recurring theme is that of the "value" of online certifications, versus "real life" certifications. By taking action against cheaters, Coursera is trying to preserve the value of their certification. I wonder how it will affect it.

Do people really care about online certifications anyway?

For me, the main advantage of the weekly assignments, is that it stops me from procrastinating, like I might if I were to learn by myself with a book... I don't really care about the certification itself. I guess I can add it to my resume, like the SCJP, but I don't think employers will care much.

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#8
The certificates, IMHO, are meaningless in the context of these online courses. Considering this, I find the measure exaggerated.

I use github as a central place to store almost everything I write outside work, so it comes pretty natural for me to version code for problems I've been working on there.

Disclaimer: I'm not involved in the Scala course, so I don't know how the actual assigments were structured.

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#9

so people who have submitted copies will still get certificates? that's kinda amusing. [edit: thanks for the reply (have an upvote); missed that. that's more reassuring.]

Doesn't seem so:

"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."

Re: Coursera's Functional Programming - Cheating Discovered

#10
post #7

When discussing online courses, a recurring theme is that of the "value" of online certifications, versus "real life" certifications. By taking action against cheaters, Coursera is trying to preserve the value of their certification. I wonder how it will affect it. Do people really care about online certifications anyway? For me, the main advantage of the weekly assignments, is that it stops me from procrastinating,…

I'm entirely self taught at Scala and never did Java, so I'm doing it just to test myself to see how much I missed and how much I understand already. Certification is almost entirely worthless as a CV aid... it gives an indicator that you are willing to put in effort out of hours for self improvement, but it's value vs a well tended github account / a programming test is negligible.
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