How to Avoid Plagiarism for Computer Codes....forstudents

Wed May 21 09:07:22 EDT 2014

I were teaching the class, I would point out that almost all coding they'll
do professionally with copy liberally from others. You do need to explain
about licenses, of course.

If you want to make sure they understand how to write a loop or something,
you can ask them to not copy for the purposes of the exercise, and penalize
those who do copy for not following instructions, but please don't confuse
things by bringing plagiarism into it. It really is a meaningless concept
in this domain.

Just my $0.02...

William Gunn | Head of Academic Outreach, Mendeley | +1 650 614 1749
http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/william-gunn
On May 21, 2014 2:33 PM, "Hockenberry, Benjamin" <bhockenberry at sjfc.edu>
wrote:

>  The second example given in the UPenn "Avoiding Plagiarism:  Writing
> Computer Code" you mentioned (
> http://www.upenn.edu/academicintegrity/ai_computercode.html) seems to
> define code plagiarism in a disconcerting way.  The code in "Unacceptable
> example 2" shares *meaning* (does this mean “function?”) with the example
> in the textbook, but its structure is significantly different.
>
>
>
> I would be very averse to such a plagiarism detection system if it were
> implemented programmatically.  There are many ways to write a while loop,
> but the discussion at the U Penn site says that logical equivalency (in a
> sense, “meaning”) equals plagiarism.  The similarity between student
> responses to a common assignment (like looping through an array) would
> cause every student to fail such a plagiarism test, and under many academic
> institutions’ academic integrity policies, this could be grounds for
> dismissal after only one or two occurrences.
>
>
>
> Attribution should be given in code, yes.  But I’m wary of this “structure
> and meaning” argument when it comes to functional similarities.  Is this
> discussion precipitated by the Oracle-Google lawsuits, Joyce?
>
>
>
> Ben Hockenberry, Systems Librarian
>
> Lavery Library, St. John Fisher College | 3690 East Avenue, Rochester, NY
> 14618
>
> (585) 385-8382 | bhockenberry at sjfc.edu
>
>
>
> *From:* Web technologies in libraries [mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU] *On
> Behalf Of *James MacDonald
> *Sent:* Wednesday, May 21, 2014 8:19 AM
> *To:* WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> *Subject:* Re: [WEB4LIB] How to Avoid Plagiarism for Computer
> Codes....forstudents
>
>
>
> I must disagree... the use of other people's work should be cited
> including coding. Here is a nice academic integrity handbook from MIT:
>
>
>
> https://integrity.mit.edu/writing-code
>
>
>
> There are times when citing is not necessary - such as factual common
> knowledge - for example, the capital of Canada is Ottawa. Neither would you
> cite say a for loop for iterating through and array.
>
>
>
> Attribution should be given where it is due even for those small snippets
> of code (without which your code would be useless).
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *James MacDonald  *Web Services Librarian
> University Library
>
>
>
> Tel +971 6 515 2270
> Fax  +971 6 558 5008
>
> American University of Sharjah
> PO Box 26666, Sharjah
> United Arab Emirates
> http://www.aus.edu
> jmacdonald at aus.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On May 21, 2014, at 3:48 PM, Forrest, Stuart <sforrest at BCGOV.NET> wrote:
>
>
>
>   Yes the whole point of modern programming is code reuse.
>
> Stuart Forrest PhD
> Beaufort County Library
> Beaufort
> South Carolina
> 843 255 6450
> For Learning, For Liesure, For Life.
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On May 21, 2014, at 6:31 AM, "Riley Childs" <riley at TFSGEO.COM<
> mailto:riley at TFSGEO.COM <riley at TFSGEO.COM>>> wrote:
>
> +1
> Most of the time coding takes bits and pieces, sometimes even entire
> files! Do you mean citing your sources per se?
>
> Riley Childs
> Student
> Asst. Head of IT Services
> Charlotte United Christian Academy
> (704) 497-2086
> RileyChilds.net <http://rileychilds.net/><http://RileyChilds.net<http://rileychilds.net/>
> >
> Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
> ________________________________
> From: William Gunn<mailto:william.gunn at MENDELEY.COM<william.gunn at MENDELEY.COM>
> >
> Sent: ‎5/‎21/‎2014 4:15 AM
> To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU<mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU<WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU>
> >
> Subject: Re: [WEB4LIB] How to Avoid Plagiarism for Computer
> Codes....forstudents
>
> Joyce, there's no concept of plagiarism in writing software that I'm aware
> of.
>
> Did you mean a different kind of programming code?
>
> --
> William Gunn | Head of Academic Outreach, Mendeley | @mrgunn
> http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/william-gunn | (650) 614-1749
>
>
> On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Joyce Wong <joyce.wong at langara.bc.ca<
> mailto:joyce.wong at langara.bc.ca <joyce.wong at langara.bc.ca>>> wrote:
> Hi everyone
>
> Apologies for any duplication.
>
> Does anyone have an online guide on avoiding plagiarism specifically on
> programming codes for students?  Our Computer Science Department is
> interested in developing one and I'd rather not re-invent the wheel.
> I have already found the page from University Pennsylvania.
>
> Thank you
> Joyce
>
> --
> Joyce Wong
> Coordinator of User Experience
> Langara College Library. 100 West 49th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5Y 2Z6
> T: 604-323-5047<tel:604-323-5047 <604-323-5047>>
> F: 604-323-5512<tel:604-323-5512 <604-323-5512>>
> joyce.wong at langara.bc.ca<mailto:joyce.wong at langara.bc.ca<joyce.wong at langara.bc.ca>
> >
>
>
> Please consider the environment before printing.
> CONFIDENTIALITY: This e-mail may contain confidential or privileged
> information. If you are
> not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately and delete this
> email from your system.
>
> ============================
>
> To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib
>
> Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/
>
> 2014-05-20
>
>    ============================
>
> To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib
>
> Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/
>
> 2014-05-21
>

============================

To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib

Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/

2014-05-21
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.nd.edu/pipermail/web4lib/attachments/20140521/7a4e9d22/attachment.htm>