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From: tlh@arthur.cs.purdue.edu.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Resources and education
Message-ID: <1262@arthur.cs.purdue.edu>
Date: Wed, 22-Apr-87 09:51:51 EST
Article-I.D.: arthur.1262
Posted: Wed Apr 22 09:51:51 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Apr-87 03:37:20 EST
References: <780@killer.UUCP>
Sender: news@arthur.cs.purdue.edu
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
Lines: 48
Summary: Goal is problem solving not writing programs.

In article <780@killer.UUCP>, elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) writes:
> Barry Shein mentions that "Copying a bubblesort out of ACM algorithms
> is not innovation". Someone else mentions a case where a student was
> influenced by a partial program in another algorithms book. 
> 
  [portion deleted] 
> 
> In other words, the whole purpose of the thing is to get the program written.
> While copying your friend's program isn't writing and thus is cheating,
> looking up resources IS part of the writing process.
> 
  [portion deleted] 
> 
> I'm curious: What do you academicians do when you recieve a program from a
> student that cites Saint Knuth on several important algorithms? Medal of
> Honor? or firing squad?
> --
> Eric Green   elg%usl.CSNET     Hacker-in-training, University of SW Louisiana
> {cbosgd,ihnp4}!killer!elg            
> Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191      Bayou  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> Lafayette, LA 70509                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Telecommunications

  When designing an assignment for a class that I am teaching,  I design it
  with the intent that the student will invest some creative energy into
  formulating a clear understanding of the problem and then developing their
  own solution.  I do this because it is my philosophy that CSE
  is primarily developing problem solving skills and not teaching how to
  program.  Admittedly, the first courses in a CS curriculum end up being
  courses that teach specific languages and programming techniques.
  
  But when a student has finished my course I like to think that I have given
  that student more than a proficiency in Pascal, I like to think that
  student has gained some confidence in his/her ability to look at problem
  (not just a programming assignment!) and develop a solution.  If faced with
  a student who turns in a working program with an attached note 
  indicating that it has been copied, not from a fellow student, but from 
  a source, I would compliment the student's integrity, STRONGLY discourage 
  the behavior in oral communication and depending on how heavily the 
  student relied on the outside source, correspondingly reduce the student's 
  score on the assignment. In short, looking  up solutions (in my book) 
  is not cheating but it is circumventing the purpose of assignments.

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Thomas L. Hausmann           |   
Research Assistant  (now)    |   tlh@mordred.cs.purdue.edu    ( ARPA )
Dept of Computer Science     |
Purdue University            |   ...!purdue!tlh   ( UUCP  )
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