Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!steve
From: steve@oakhill.UUCP (steve)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: looking for cheating detectors
Summary: Let's be real Ed
Message-ID: <1405@devsys.oakhill.UUCP>
Date: 26 Jul 88 16:09:33 GMT
References: <1403@sbcs.sunysb.edu> <2920@utastro.UUCP>
Organization: Motorola Inc. Austin, Tx
Lines: 38


Ed Nather does have a point that most real programmers lift their code
from other sources.  But there is a difference.  When I (or any other
programmer) lift code, I make sure I understand the code I am working
on.  Quite often I have to resturcture or debug something subtle that
wasn't needed in the original.  If I had not writen such code once upon 
a time in course work (by myself) there is no way I could do this.
When a student copies the code from another source, they don't get this
background.  I have helped with introductary CS courses, and it is amazing
how many students cheat.  They are not only cheating themselves, but
harming the reputation of every other graduate of the CS department.
The asumption should be that once you graduate you should know how to
program.  Employers no longer assume this.  In my initial job interviews
every employer had some sort of quiz on knowledge.  Some even had paper
exams that had to be taken. 
   What I mean to say is that the job of a CS program is to teach the
the basic theories of programming to students.  It has long been
assumed (rightly or wrongly) that hands on programming is an important
part of this.  Because you are doing a basic algorithm done 10,000,000
times before makes no difference.  You need to learn the basics of
the algorithm, and programming is an important part of this (I
remember when doing the Milikin oil drop experiment, one of my classmates
complained that we knew the charge of an electron and didn't have to
repeat the experiment.  Would you condone this too?).  Cheating shows that
the student is not learning, and thus should not make the grade.

Another question should be what is to be done to students who aid cheating.
I remember TAing introductary programing and finding out one of the students
had posted on his dorm room his finished assignment.  Listed on the side of
the assignment were ways to take his program and make it look original
(Incidently, a simple cheating detector (check of keywords, their order,
hierarchy, etc.) would have detected the cheating).  To a student having
trouble, this temptation is large.  I'd be interested in your replies.
(Incidently, I do not know what diciplinary action was taken in this case).

			   Your mooncalf - Steve

P.S.  What are we going to do when some of our basic algorithms wear-out
:-).  Will we have to resort to bubble-sort when quick-sort dies?