Academic misconduct (or: ‘is this kind of help appropriate?’)

Identify whether or not a situation is considered academic misconduct.

We have looked at using version control (i.e., using it on the command-line and using web interfaces like GitLab).

One of the things that you’re going to quickly find out is that there’s a lot of source code that’s published publicly on the internet. Sometimes that source code is published (for example) as part of a programming language. You can find source code for the JDK on GitHub. You can find source code for Python on GitHub. You can also find source code that implements many algorithms in a variety of programming languages on GitHub.

Unfortunately, just because you can find these projects publicly posted on GitHub doesn’t mean that you have been given permission to include that code in the code you write that’s being assessed as part of your university courses.

Sometimes it’s a legal issue: the code that’s posted on web sites like GitHub is copyrighted by the person who wrote the code. That person may grant a broad open source license for other people to use their code, but that doesn’t grant you permission to use that code in your own code.

Regardless of whether or not it’s a legal issue, including source code that’s not your own (you did not think about the solution, then write it yourself) is an issue of academic integrity.

Source code is copyrighted, but may also be licensed. Some software licenses are proprietary (you’re not allowed to re-use or re-publish that source code in any way, shape, or form unless you pay for a specific license); some software licenses are open source (you’re allowed to re-use or re-publish that source code in your own projects, provided you include the license); some are public domain (you’re free to do whatever you want, however you want with the source code and you’re not required to include the original license).

When you are in a position of licensing your software (which you may not be right now!), a site like Choose an open source license can help you decide what kind of license you want to use when you publish your source code for the world to use.

Academic misconduct is an issue that can affect you, and one that you should take seriously.

The learning outcome in this topic is for you to identify whether or not certain situations would be considered academic misconduct, specifically in the context of Computer Science and software development, so we’re going to show you some specific situations, give you a chance to think about those situations, and then tell you about why or why not something is considered academic misconduct.

Situations

Situation 1

Michael and Rob are both working on their assignment for COMP 1020. Rob is having a bit of trouble, so asks Michael if they can talk for a while on Discord about the assignment.

Michael and Rob work together on the assignment for a while, but Michael never shows Rob any of his code. Michael and Rob only talk about the assignment, make general design suggestions, or suggestions on which data structures to use.

Have Michael and Rob committed academic misconduct?

No, Michael and Rob have not committed academic misconduct. Students are permitted to generally discuss assignments that they are working on.

The one caveat to this situation would be if the assignment itself was to decide on what kind of data structure to use, but if this were a general programming assignment, discussing data structures in and of itself is not academic misconduct.

Situation 2

John and Franklin are both working on their assignment for COMP 2140. Franklin is really struggling with the assignment and asks John if they can meet over Discord. Franklin and John both talk about the assignment for a while, but John is starting to think that Franklin is really in over his head.

John suggests that he share his code by screen sharing so that Franklin can have a better idea about how to link together two nodes in Java. Franklin agrees and reads John’s code. Franklin then writes his own implementation.

Have John and Franklin committed academic misconduct?

Yes, John and Franklin have committed academic misconduct. When John showed Franklin his source code, even though the intent wasn’t for Franklin to copy the source code and Franklin didn’t copy the source code, John and Franklin were participating in inappropriate collaboration as soon as John showed Franklin his source code.

Situation 3

Franklin and Heather are both working on their assignment for COMP 2160. Franklin is really stuck trying to figure out how the first part of the assignment works. He asks Heather if they can meet on Discord, but Heather is not available to help. Instead, she e-mails Franklin her partial implementation that includes how she set up the assignment.

Have Franklin and Heather committed academic misconduct?

Yes, just like John and Franklin, Heather and Franklin are participating in inappropriate collaboration. In this case, since Heather is physically sending Franklin a file, it feels a little bit more clear than just screen sharing because sending a file by e-mail (or as an attachment in whatever communication tool you’re using) is more tangible and permanent than screen sharing.

Situation 3 (a)

Franklin copies and pastes some of the code that Heather shared with him, but he doesn’t tell Heather. Franklin submits that code as part of his own assignment.

Have Franklin and Heather committed academic misconduct?

Yes. In fact, even though Franklin seems to be the only one doing something wrong here, unfortunately Heather is also guilty of academic misconduct because they are participating in inappropriate collaboration together.

Situation 4

Franklin is getting really desperate. He just can’t figure out how to find the length of an array in C. While Franklin is looking for help on the internet, he finds some code that looks a lot like it’s supposed to be a solution for the assignment that he’s working on, and may in fact be the sample solution provided by the instructor in previous terms..

Franklin reads the code and it helps him figure out how to find the length of an array in C. He doesn’t copy any code.

Has Franklin committed academic misconduct?

Yes. Similar to our first case with John, Franklin is participating in inappropriate collaboration, but that seems less obvious because there’s no other person that’s directly involved in participating.

That said, there is technically another person who is participating here: the person who originally posted the sample solution on the internet. They’re passively involved in this misconduct, but they are involved.

Situation 4 (a)

Franklin copies and pastes a small fragment of the code that was in the file he found (maybe a single function).

Has Franklin committed academic misconduct?

Yes, this is definitely misconduct and it’s significantly clearer than the last couple of cases because Franklin is explicitly using and submitting work that he did not create for assessment. This is an example of plagiarism.

Situation 4 (b)

Franklin submits the entire file he found with enough modifications to satisfy the current assignment description.

Has Franklin committed academic misconduct?

Just like the last example, by submitting work that is not his own and he is committing plagiarism.

Situation 5

Franklin managed to get the assignment done for COMP 3430 (barely), and he handed it in at the very last second. In his rush to hand in the assignment, he forgot to include a part of the report that was listed in the assignment requirements section. This part of the report isn’t itself essential for the code to work, but is essential to help confirm the results/conclusions that Franklin is writing about in the report.

Has Franklin committed academic misconduct?

No, Franklin has not committed academic misconduct. Franklin has not plagiarized any work, has not collaborated inappropriately with any of his peers, and did not commit academic fraud (he did not make up the results).

Would Franklin be at risk of being accused of academic misconduct?

Maybe. In this specific case, Franklin appears at first glance to have committed academic fraud, and it might be reasonable for Franklin’s instructor to assume that Franklin has committed academic fraud.

If Franklin’s submission is identified as a possible case of academic misconduct due to academic fraud, Franklin’s instructor might reach out to him and ask for clarification or for the evidence that’s missing, and the issue would be resolved.

If Franklin’s instructor still believes that Franklin committed academic misconduct, the instructor would forward the case to the Associate Head (AH) of Computer Science for Student Experience. The AH would then act as an independent third party in the case and conduct an investigation, including giving Franklin an opportunity to discuss the situation. The AH would render a decision about the situation (this is or is not a case of academic misconduct), and share that decision with both Franklin and Franklin’s instructor.

Some additional scenarios to consider:

Franklin’s instructor has given some code in the assignment.
Franklin’s instructor has pointed Franklin at a web site that has code on it.
Franklin posts his code on GitHub (privately).
- Nobody finds it.
- Somebody finds it and uses it.