[Goose]

Quote:  "They are truly "one and done". I cannot count the number of "identical" problem sets I graded when I was a TA, with exactly the same mistakes in each one. Week upon week. This was in a class where you were supposed to do your own work. I pointed this out, but nothing at all happened, not even a "talking to"."

My son was a TA for some basic computer programming classes back in the 2010 time frame.  His experience was entirely different.  The professor and the TAs stressed it was important for students to hand in original work on the problem sets.

Many of the students in these classes were freshmen who planned majors in other areas but thought some coding experience might be helpful  All too often they would procrastinate, not be able to get their code to work, and then panic.  They resorted to talking another student into letting them copy or try to find the problem with solution on the internet.

The CS department had software to detect copied code lines and many freshmen got caught.  My son felt they weren't really cheaters on a wholesale level but panicked at the last minute.  Usually the student was given a zero on the homework the first time.  The second time was reported as an honor code violation.  At that time the single biggest category of honor violations was a student caught cheating on a CS homework assignment.

I suspect the CS faculty did this in response to the fact cheating was well known, endemic and widespread among the freshmen, over whom they still had some "moral authority". The instructors were probably also "junior" faculty who still held some idealism about academic integrity :-). The more "senior" faculty I was dealing with in the EE department had other fish to fry and dealing with cheating on the homework wasn't on their radar. I think they figured that by the time these people were graduate students, they were what they were. The non-PhD candidates would be gone at the end of the year anyway. Still, I really didn't think it was a "good" policy.

As far as panic setting in, I had an experience my junior year that kept me worrying a bit for quite a while. We had a take-home final in EE 111. I had finished mine when a classmate showed up at my door. He was clearly in a panic and asked for help on the final. There was one problem he had no idea how to solve. I was really taken aback. Obviously, I wasn't going to help him, but he had now put me in a position where I theoretically should turn him in, and if I don't, I am at risk. I knew exactly the problem he couldn't do, and it actually was a "simple" one. He was overthinking it and panicked. I told him to calm down, go back to his room and finish the test. I did tell him don't overthink the problems. I never heard anything about this ever again (thank goodness). He never mentioned it and I never mentioned it, but I was a bit exercised about the position he put me in.

[Goose]

Quote:  "They are truly "one and done". I cannot count the number of "identical" problem sets I graded when I was a TA, with exactly the same mistakes in each one. Week upon week. This was in a class where you were supposed to do your own work. I pointed this out, but nothing at all happened, not even a "talking to"."

My son was a TA for some basic computer programming classes back in the 2010 time frame.  His experience was entirely different.  The professor and the TAs stressed it was important for students to hand in original work on the problem sets.

Many of the students in these classes were freshmen who planned majors in other areas but thought some coding experience might be helpful  All too often they would procrastinate, not be able to get their code to work, and then panic.  They resorted to talking another student into letting them copy or try to find the problem with solution on the internet.

The CS department had software to detect copied code lines and many freshmen got caught.  My son felt they weren't really cheaters on a wholesale level but panicked at the last minute.  Usually the student was given a zero on the homework the first time.  The second time was reported as an honor code violation.  At that time the single biggest category of honor violations was a student caught cheating on a CS homework assignment.

I suspect the CS faculty did this in response to the fact cheating was well known, endemic and widespread among the freshmen, over whom they still had some "moral authority". The instructors were probably also "junior" faculty who still held some idealism about academic integrity :-). The more "senior" faculty I was dealing with in the EE department had other fish to fry and dealing with cheating on the homework wasn't on their radar. I think they figured that by the time these people were graduate students, they were what they were. The non-PhD candidates would be gone at the end of the year anyway. Still, I really didn't think it was a "good" policy.

As far as panic setting in, I had an experience my junior year that kept me worrying a bit for quite a while. We had a take-home final in EE 111. I had finished mine when a classmate showed up at my door. He was clearly in a panic and asked for help on the final. There was one problem he had no idea how to solve. I was really taken aback. Obviously, I wasn't going to help him, but he had now put me in a position where I theoretically should turn him in, and if I don't, I am at risk. I knew exactly the problem he couldn't do, and it actually was a "simple" one. He was overthinking it and panicked. I told him to calm down, go back to his room and finish the test. I did tell him don't overthink the problems. I never heard anything about this ever again (thank goodness). He never mentioned it and I never mentioned it, but I was a bit exercised about the position he put me in.