Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sri-spam!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcc6!sdacs!wade
From: wade@sdacs.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Cheating on Programming Assignments
Message-ID: <274@sdacs.ucsd.EDU>
Date: Tue, 31-Mar-87 12:54:26 EST
Article-I.D.: sdacs.274
Posted: Tue Mar 31 12:54:26 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 2-Apr-87 01:44:24 EST
References: <248@rruxa.UUCP>
Organization: University of California, San Diego
Lines: 45
Summary: common practice

In article <248@rruxa.UUCP>, gwl@rruxa.UUCP writes:
>         A general problem that I am sure is encountered in any course in
> which programming exercises are assigned is cheating on the part of
> students.  Reading each and every program may not necessarily catch all
> forms of cheating.  
> ....
> All of the programs that my students write
> on on IBM PC clones.  It would be very simple to require them to not only
> hand in a program listing with supporting output, but to also require them
> to hand in the source on a floppy disk so that I may actually subject them
> to my own test cases.  This may make it possible to judge programs based
> upon feeding them the identical test data and evaluating the results.  It
> ...
>           Does anyone have any problems with this approach?  The only
> people who I see that would oppose such a process would be those who 
> would take the easy way out and doctor the output rather than
> expend the extra energy and time to make the programs work properly.
> 

  I don't see any problem with this, particularly since when I was taking
programming classes in school 5-6 years ago this was a common practice. We
were required to turn in a floppy with a program and perhaps a readme file
on it, or if the class was being taught on a multi-user system, we had to
mail a copy  of the source to the instructor or TA. I think I may have had
a class where we just named the program something specific like 
homework3.p and the TA used his group permission to go into your directory
and compile and run it. 

I am not sure if these techniques are still used to verify the
syntax (compiler wise) and correctness of output, but I sure did not 
mind knowing that after I spent an all nighter getting my program to 
run, nobody was going to get the same credit by faking output.

A further question might be whether it is OK to use utilities like "diff"
to catch duplicate code. Why, you could even write a program which 
ignored differences in variable names, and only checked the structure...
Is this going too far, or is it simply using the computer to help you
do your job, which, after all, is what you are trying to teach
the students..right?

Ethical debate passed on to the net for resolution...

Wade Blomgren
UCSD-ACS
...sdcsvax!sdacs!wade