crm@romeo.cs.duke.edu (Charlie Martin) (03/15/90)
I have to say that I think it's a matter for your school's individual honor code etc to handle. If they're willing to ask for homework answers on the net (not thinking for example that their professor might be *reading* the thing) then they're willing to lie about it being research. When Arnie Rosenberg was here at Duke, he used to encourage us to work together in groups on his homework problems, but then write the problems up separately. He felt that gave enough divergence that he got an idea of who was ahead and who was behind. Charlie Martin (crm@cs.duke.edu,mcnc!duke!crm)
mmcg@bruce.cc.monash.oz (Mike McGaughey) (03/15/90)
harper@oravax.UUCP (Douglas Harper) [15 Mar 90 03:24:39 GMT]: > What about coupling this with crying "foul" if you see that a homework > problem has been posted? What about sending mail to the individual's > postmaster asking that the CS (or whatever) department be notified that > such and such a problem was posted by that person? Yes, but what if it isn't homework? ex: tonight I became interested in fitting an exponential curve to some points. I am a 3rd yr CS PhD, so my maths is a little rusty :-). After some fiddling, I had an equation to solve : 0 = a x^n1 + bx^n2 + cx^n3 where the only unknown is x, and n1-n3 are large numbers. This isn't analytically soluble, but there may be some upper bound to the number of solutions (so I could write a search program). As it is, I concluded that there is, as there are only 3 terms and each term can only change sign once - hence max of 4 solns. If it had been a little later at night (if I was a little more stupid :-), I probably would have asked - "obviously a homework problem". I think it's better to send a little note to the person, so they get a chance to explain, have a monthly posting warning about this, and start quietly ignoring those who post too many homework questions. Cheers, Mike. BTW: the maths was prompted by a table of populations in sci.sceptic. -- Mike McGaughey ACSNET: mmcg@bruce.cs.monash.oz "Ignorance is stupid, but education causes college students" - P.J. O'Rourke, Republican Party Reptile.
niall@nmsu.edu (Niall Graham) (03/16/90)
Eliot Moss (Moss@cs.umass.edu) writes: >Should we establish any principle of use of this news group concerning >requests for help to answer course homework problems? Some of the questions >posted here occasionally have the feel that they may have been assigned in a >class. In my opinion, I would want a student to claim that questions posted >here relate to research, not homework. This could get messy, but there is an >important ethical and fairness issue at stake ... Eliot Moss Frequently, a posting would benefit from the inclusion of a sentence or two on the motivation/origin of the problem. Such postings would have several desirable properties: They would be more interesting to read. They would allow the reader to reformulate the problem to his/her taste. And relevant to the issue at hand: it would be more difficult for doers-of-homework to disguise their problems as original research. Any comments? Niall Graham niall@c3.lanl.gov (despite source of posting)
wdn@springs.cis.ufl.edu (William Norris) (03/18/90)
In article <1420@oravax.UUCP> harper@oravax.UUCP (Douglas Harper) writes: >In article <MOSS.90Mar12093804@ibis.cs.umass.edu>, moss@ibis.cs.umass.edu (Eliot Moss) writes: >> Should we establish any principle of use of this news group concerning >> requests for help to answer course homework problems? ... >> -- >> J. Eliot B. Moss, Assistant Professor >> Department of Computer and Information Science >> University of Massachusetts > >... On the one hand, >someone who is willing to cheat with open eyes is going to be willing >to lie about intent on the net. But I guess that sort of person can >always find the way to a library to look for the answer in another ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^ ^^^^^^^ >book, or to a backdoor "tutor". > >-- >Douglas Harper oravax!harper@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu >"'...Lest one good custom should corrupt the world...'" -- Tennyson Is looking for simular texts in a library considered cheating at Cornell? If you can find another text which looks at a homework problem in a different light to give you more insight and perhaps guide you to a better solution then why not. Looking for direction in a library doesn't consitute cheating in my code of ethics. BTW - I would *never* post a homework problem to the net. William Dean Norris II People always say "I know what University of Florida I like" when they mean "I like what I know". wdn@beach.cis.ufl.edu - G. Artman -- William Dean Norris II People always say "I know what University of Florida I like" when they mean "I like what I know". wdn@beach.cis.ufl.edu - G. Artman
moss@ibis.cs.umass.edu (Eliot Moss) (03/19/90)
With respect to looking in library books, I think it is good for students to go dig in the library. The possible bad thing that might come of it is turning in a book solution as your own, a clear case of plagiarism. I think that if one runs across a published solution while pursuing angles on homework problems, and one uses substantially the same method on the paper turned in, then one should indicate the source (i.e., Following John Smith, "Theory Text", Math Press, 1985). Most honor codes are clear about that. Whether the instructor would give the student full credit under the circumstances is an interesting question. I think substantial credit may be due, since learning to use libraries well is part of what students should be learning, but it is a matter of individual taste and the instructor's objectives. Many instructors take exam and homework problems from previous/alternate texts, so they are indeed a good source for students, but also a temptation to short cuts ... Eliot -- J. Eliot B. Moss, Assistant Professor Department of Computer and Information Science Lederle Graduate Research Center University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 (413) 545-4206; Moss@cs.umass.edu
sartin@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM (Rob Sartin) (03/20/90)
> Is looking for simular texts in a library considered cheating > at Cornell? I think not, otherwise I violated the rules when I was at Cornell. When the assignment was not to derive an algorithm or do the proof myself, I sometimes got solutions from my personal library (I avoided the University libraries except for facetime). Of course I always cited my source. None of my profs or TA's ever complained. Rob