Timeline for Is reusing old code for a new assignment considered self plagiarism? How to protect yourself if you consider it to be, and a group partner does not?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
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| May 4, 2020 at 18:02 | comment | added | psosuna | @KevinKrumwiede I both agree and disagree. In the real world, there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Students should absolutely be instructed that using previous and open existing code for implementations is a GOOD thing. However, if the point is to prove that the student has command of the theory sufficient enough to design a new implementation, then I think it's valid to request brand-new code. If the professor is sensible enough, he may allow the code, but give a better grade for "improving upon and redesigning the logic" so that it is made new from old. | |
| Nov 2, 2015 at 2:35 | comment | added | Kevin Krumwiede | @110100101110101 If you're forbidden to reuse previous work in a computer science course, that's just one more way in which academia is completely out of touch with reality. Students should be required to reuse previous work. How to reuse code effectively should be a major part of the curriculum. | |
| Nov 2, 2015 at 1:19 | comment | added | Greenstone Walker | @110100101110101, I would say that the purpose of a class is that the students learn the material. If the student in this case used this algorithm in a previous class then they obviously have learnt the material. The only important question for an assignment should be "Is this project solely the work of the students?". In this case, the answer is "yes". | |
| Nov 1, 2015 at 1:05 | comment | added | gnometorule | Talking about 'an essay' is entirely misleading. Re-using code you happen to have written before which proves useful for a new project is certainly different; whether that is acceptable or not depends on class guidelines (but my guess is that yes). Just saying. | |
| Nov 1, 2015 at 0:57 | comment | added | Byte Lab | @Fomite, okay I'll rephrase, should a student be allowed to copy and paste half of an essay and hand it in as though it's an original piece of work? | |
| Nov 1, 2015 at 0:57 | comment | added | Fomite | @110100101110101 So when you're accusing him, you use language like 'Should a student be allowed to hand in the exact same essay', but he's only reusing 'more than half'... | |
| Nov 1, 2015 at 0:56 | comment | added | Byte Lab | @Fomite he wants to copy and paste more than half the codebase | |
| Nov 1, 2015 at 0:55 | comment | added | Byte Lab | Should a student be allowed to hand in the exact same essay for multiple courses if the general topic is the same? That is the very definition of self-plagiarism. I don't see how the goal of the course to teach the algorithms would change that. | |
| Nov 1, 2015 at 0:55 | comment | added | Fomite | @110100101110101 Is he reusing his code without any modification, or is he simply choosing not to rewrite the wheel? Because I've been to many classes that absolutely do assume you'll build off things you learned before. | |
| Nov 1, 2015 at 0:53 | comment | added | Byte Lab | Thank you for your response. If I have misunderstood self-plagiarism, perhaps you could define it in your answer? It seems to me that you're claiming that because the purpose of a course is to teach, that reusing his existing code would not fit the definition of self-plagiarism. In addition, perhaps we come from different academic backgrounds, but I have never attended an institution where students were allowed to reuse their work from previous semesters. If anything, it is typically expressly forbidden. | |
| Nov 1, 2015 at 0:44 | history | answered | sean | CC BY-SA 3.0 |