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From: root@herman.UUCP (system administration)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Cheating on Programming Assignments
Message-ID: <278@herman.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-May-87 02:06:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: herman.278
Posted: Fri May  1 02:06:12 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 3-May-87 01:54:36 EDT
References: <248@rruxa.UUCP> <274@sdacs.ucsd.EDU> <211@axis.fr> <83@ksr.UUCP>
Organization: Unisys Inc.-CSD  Eagan,MN
Lines: 31
Summary: i tend to agree...

In article <83@ksr.UUCP>, benson@alcatraz.ksr.com (Benson Margulies) writes:
> Rather than spending brain-power on defining cheating, writing
> programs to detect it, and arguing about how to punish it, \I/ think
> that you should be spending your time on building a learning
> environment in which its irrelevant. ....

First of all i have to let out a little school rah-rah:  I did my undergraduate
work at the University of Virginia (wah-hoo-wah (:-)) which has a famous (at
least on the east coast) honor system.  Essentially, its precepts are:  One
does not cheat, and therefore there need be little energy spent on it.  One did
not have to worry about covering one's test up in class, etc.
Overall, i would say it worked quite well, and i'm always amazed at "other"
colleges where rampant cheating is accepted as a way of life.  At UVA, rampant
honesty is more the norm.

This allowed one to expend oneself on learning, not preventing others from
cheating off of you.

As far as cheating on programs, in my experience as a computer consultant at
the Academic Computer Center, there was little cheating that i was able to
detect (but i'm the first one to admit that i'm not perfect -- and i wasn't
looking for it very hard given the honor-system environment i was in).  But it
seemed that the few times there was something funny going on, it was quite
blatent.  Usually on the order of wholesale copying of someone else's program
listing out of the trash and just changing variable names.  Most people who
could do better at hiding their cheating were, by definition therefore, able to
at least squeak by without resorting to cheating.

Furthermore it was considered by most (again i'm really speaking of MY
experiences) that if you cheated you only hurt yourself.  You get what you put
into it and that is what ultimately counts, doesn't it?