Can post a code but afraid of plagiarism

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, 20 Jan 2014 09:08:28 -0500, Roy Smith wrote:

> In article <mailman.5735.1390198899.18130.python-list at python.org>,
>  Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 4:21 PM, Dan Stromberg <drsalists at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > I did a short time of teaching while I was in school.  If three
>> > students all turned in the same assignment, they all got docked
>> > significantly.  There was no "who copied off of whom?", it was
>> > "someone shared when they shouldn't have."
>> 
>> What a wonderful way to promote an attitude of "my code is MY CODE and
>> should never leave my sight". What a delightful way of thinking to
>> unleash on the world.
> 
> That's a little harsh.  Working in groups, and sharing code, are
> important parts of how software gets developed today.  Those
> collaborative work habits should indeed be taught.  But, school is also
> about evaluation of progress.  At the end of the class, the teacher
> needs some objective way to figure out how much each student has learned
> and assign a grade.  It's hard to do that if people aren't handing in
> assignments done individually.

An objective way to figure out individual progress is easy. It's called 
an "exam" or "test". Admittedly, it's normally only practical for 
examinations to last no more than a day for senior students, and an hour 
or maximum two hours for junior students, and some subjects are more 
easily tested this way than others. But you can still examine a lot in a 
couple of hours. If you're interested in accurately measuring the 
learning of individual students, there is at least one pretty damning 
problem with assignments: just because student X puts his name on the 
paper doesn't mean student X wrote the paper. Assignments are effectively 
based on the honour system, and we know how well that works. For those 
with the money to spend, you need not do a lick of work to get an A.

Perhaps that's why Harvard has just given up even trying to distinguish 
the students who learn things from those who don't? Forget George Bush's 
"Gentleman's C", Harvard now practically gives A's away to anyone who 
shows up (and pays the fees).

http://qz.com/153694/the-most-commonly-awarded-grade-at-harvard-is-an-a/

Presumably they're protecting their business model. Students are 
customers, and if your customers are paying a small fortune to attend, 
they need to get something in return. Knowledge is good, but you can't 
put knowledge on a CV or frame it and put it on a wall.

It would be interesting to think about the incentives which have lead to 
an over-reliance on take-home assignments rather than exams, as well as 
the pros and cons of one versus the other. Don't get me wrong, there are 
advantages to assignments as well, but I think that the total prohibition 
on collaboration is misguided. The question in my mind is how to 
encourage students to learn from each other rather than to merely 
mechanically copy from each other?

Relevant:

http://qz.com/157579/confession-of-an-ivy-league-teaching-assistant-heres-why-i-inflated-grades/


-- 
Steven