CS-A1113 - Basics in Programming Y1, Lecture, 14.9.2021-9.12.2021

Topic outline

• Group work and plagiarism
  While you are encouraged to give other students helpful hints and guidance, keep in mind that the weekly Exercises are considered independent work. This means that submitting code that another student has worked on constitutes plagiarism (presenting work created by someone else as one's own). As such, directly working together on the same code (or copying another student's code) is never acceptable. Cases of suspected plagiarism are taken very seriously and will be handled in accordance with the Aalto University Code of Academic Integrity. 

  Examples of allowed and not allowed collaboration

  In order to clarify what kinds of collaboration are and are not allowed, here are lists of some examples.

  When writing course submissions, you are allowed to:

  • Use snippets of code given in the course materials or exercise descriptions as part of your submission.
  • Discuss the course exercises/solutions with other students on a general level (without referencing specific Python commands/code), such as the following example discussion:
  • A: "The program probably needs a loop that iterates through all of the items of the list and checks that there isn't a zero in it."
  • B: "Yes, and then we need a function that modifies a list parameter, so that all of the ones in the list become twos."  
  • A: "But first we need to create initialize a list and set all of its values to zero." 
  • Give another student tips/corrections pertaining to small parts of their solution (no more than 2 – 3 lines of code), if the other student’s code would otherwise work.
  • Give another student general-level tips and links to relevant course materials, if the other student's code is more flawed (beyond 2 – 3 lines of errors)

  When writing course submissions, you are not allowed to:

  • Copy-and-paste or otherwise rewrite code written by someone else. This applies even if variable names or comments are changed. The only exceptions are snippets of code given in the course materials or exercise descriptions, as you are expected to reuse them.
  • Share your code with others, in person or online. This applies even if the other student(s) promised to write their own code from scratch.
  • Write exercise submissions in collaboration with other students, such that the code is written together line-by-line or that the end result is practically identical (even if there are superficial formatting differences or different variable names or comments).

  
  

  Keep in mind that these regulations were made with the Y1 course in mind, but similar rules exist for many of the programming courses you may attend in the future. As always, if you find exercises too challenging, we recommend asking for help on the Slack workspace or during our Exercise Sessions.