Academic Integrity Policies for CIS 351
You are acting with academic integrity to the extent that you do your academic work
honestly and ethically. In particular, you are acting with academic integrity if you are
taking full credit for your own work, and giving full credit to others who have helped
you, or whose work you have incorporated into your own
representing your own work honestly and accurately
cooperating with other students, on academic exercises, only where specifically
authorized
Computer science is a collaborative discipline. Whether in a professional or an educational setting, teams can accomplish more than individuals. However, in CIS351 and many programming courses in the EECS department may require that you work individually to better serve or assess your learning.
Although it is common practice to adapt code examples found on the web,
You should never copy code from other students.
Your peers are not considered an authorized source.
You should not simply re-use code as the solution to an assignment. Like academic writing, your code can incorporate the ideas of others but should reflect your original approach to the problem.
In this course, to recieve gardes, you need to submit the Academic Integrity Pldege within 2 week of the semester.
In CIS351, many activities will permit or require collaboration like labs and in-class activities. Collaboration may be an explicit learning goal of such activities. When you turn in collaborative work, even as a lab solution, you DO NOT need to credit the help or peer that you seeked help from.
HOWEVER, In this course, Homework, i.e. programming assignments are designed to: (1) help you learn the materials; (2) help you understand what you have and have not learned; and (3) encourage you to do the work that is necessary for learning to occur. Unambiguously, the best way for you to achieve the second objective is for you to complete programming assignments entirely on your OWN, occasionally asking questions of a general nature (i.e., about the topics you need to understand in order to complete assignment but not specifics about the assignment itself).
You may discuss HW, i.e. programming assignments, in an abstract way, with other students who are currently enrolled in your class, but you should limit the amount of collaboration and you should keep a careful record of it (so that you can assess yourself).
You must not discuss the programming assignments with students who are not currently enrolled in your course, except for the designated TAs or lab assistants.
You also must not discuss programming assignments with tutors of any kind – paid or volunteer, local or remote. Finally, you must not submit (even before the due date/time) another student’s work as your own.
In other words, the code you submit must be written/typed entirely by you and you alone.
Failure to comply with these policies is a violation of the academic honesty.
Though you are entitled to discuss the programming assignments with other people, you must be courteous. Most importantly, students are not required, or even encouraged, to provide assistance. So, if asked, you should feel free to decline such a request and, if asking, you must not take offense if such a request is denied.
For Homework, the following policies will be adopted regarding how much cooperation is permitted in CIS351:
A. Students are to work on their HW without consulting with anyone that is not explicitly approved by the instructor. You can always ask for help from TA, grader and the instructor.
B. Students are allowed to discuss the meaning of HW programs or problems together but are expected to work totally independent of anyone that is not explicitly approved by the instructor when working on the solutions to a program or problem and when doing their coding.
C. In some cases, the instructor may distribute a written policy (possibly as a part of their syllabus) that specifies how much cooperation and joint work is permitted on their HW.
Policy A is the default policy that will be used unless the instructor specifies otherwise in writing (e.g., in their syllabus or in assignment instructions) indicating that one of the other policies will be followed. Violation of this policy will result in reporting for academic integrity violations. Students are to clarify with their instructors any questions they may have about how much cooperation and joint work is permitted on HW.
Cheating on an exam includes, but is not limited to:
taking answers from another student’s exam or paper or allowing another student to
take answers from your exam or paper
the use of notes or other materials not allowed or approved by the instructor
collaboration on a take-home or online exam unless the collaboration is approved by
the instructor
allowing another student to take a take-home or on-line exam for you and
representing the work on the exam as your own
copying materials from a computer file during an exam when the instructor has not
designated the use of computer files
talking to other students during a test
Keeping your files/documents unsecured
Altering or destroying file or any evidence
Whether working in a group or individually, at times you may seek assistance from a variety of sources, including professors, mentors, grader, TAs, classmates, and other students.
Assistance with programming exercises may serve one of three purposes: To help you get started, to correct a syntax error, or to debug code that does not work as intended. In all cases, those providing assistance should ask questions instead of providing answers. Never write code for another student or show them your solutions. Moving away from the computer, for example to draw on a whiteboard, will help to emphasize concepts. Whether giving or receiving such assistance, your goal should be learning. Remember that responsibility for completing the assignment belongs to the learner.
Web sites such as stackoverflow.com provide assistance to both professionals and learners. Feel free to google for error reasons and technical challenges in stackoverflow as these sources may suggest approaches or help you debug your code. However, in using such sites, again, your goal should be learning.
Others' intellectual contributions to your work must be explicitly acknowledged, e.g., by a comment in your code. Such acknowledgments credit others for their contributions, and also allow readers of your code to consult the resources you used. People should be thanked by name. If you are using any book resources, you need to credit the book too.
It’s also fine to use any code provided by this semester’s 6.031 staff (in class, readings, or problem sets), without need for attribution. Staff-provided code may not be publicly shared without permission.
Example1: Here is an example of how to credit sources in your HW programs. When citing within the code, the citation information could be placed as a comment at the begining of your code, as shows below:
***************************************************************************************/
* Acknowledgements:
* Title: GraphicsDrawer source code
* Author: Smith, J
* Date: 2011
* Code version: 2.0
* Availability: http://www.graphicsdrawer.comM
*
***************************************************************************************/
Example2: Here is an example of how to credit the help you have taken from your TA.
***************************************************************************************/
* Acknowledgements:
* I have taken help for calculateArea method from TA XXX
*
***************************************************************************************/
Please remember that in cases involving cheating or plagiarism, a person who knowingly assists another person in cheating or plagiarism is considered as guilty as the person receiving help. The person whose work is copied is also considered responsible for violating academic integrity principles. Using solutions or code from a problem assigned in a previous semester without the explicit permission of the instructor is also considered to be cheating or plagiarism. It is each student's responsibility to place protection on their files containing assignments, avoid leaving their computer account open in the labs when they are not present, protect current and old printouts of their code, and take other reasonable precautions to ensure these files are not accessible to another student.
Take special care to protect your files, directories, and systems appropriately, and be sure to discard printouts so they cannot be retrieved by others (e.g., do not discard printouts in public recycling or garbage bins until after the assignment due date is passed).
A student who becomes aware of cheating is strongly encouraged to report this matter. It is important that the students and instructors work together to achieve an academic environment that is fair to all students.
The following constitutes cheating on a HW in CIS351:
Failure to give credit for help received. All help received must be credited, whether
the help is from the instructor, a TA, a grader or another student in class.
Failure to work individually. Unless otherwise specified by the instructor,
HWa are to be done individually. This means that you may talk to
classmates and other students about a HW, but you must do all
the work yourself from beginning to end. Two or more students may sit down together
and discuss an assignment/lab/project as they are working on it, but each student
must do his/her own work in completing the assignment. Note that if you talk to other
students about the HW or work with someone on the HW, that activity
should be included in the “credit” section described in the previous bullet.
Submitting the same work in more than one course without prior permission of both
instructors.
Failure to keep your workspace private so that others are able to access your files.
Sharing your passwords and logins with others can create academic situations under
which all parties are liable. Use only your computer, your logins, and your SU
account.
You may never copy or share computer files with any one, unless your instructor has
provided written instructions that explicitly spell out when sharing or copying is
allowed. All parties involved will be liable for academic dishonesty if files are shared
or copied.
Copying or sharing code or work that is yours or from another source, unless explicitly
(in writing) allowed by your instructor. You may never copy or share code or work that
is yours or from another source, unless your instructor has provided written
instructions that explicitly spell out when copying is permissible. For example,
you cannot copy all or part of someone else’s program code
you cannot copy all or part of someone else’s written documentation
you cannot copy classes or methods that someone else has created
you cannot share your code with someone else at any time, under any circumstances
The instructor will follow the procedures provided in detail in the current University poclicy document posted here. Read this information very carefully! It is the policy of this school to file a report to the Center for Learning and Student Success for every incident of academic dishonesty.
Acknowledgements
For the policies outlined in this document, we have drawn upon ideas of Academic Honesty Policy in the Computer Science Grinnell College, Whitman College, University of Arizona, MIT, Rutgers University well as the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.