Just curious if there is a way to prevent students from copying and pasting code? Or to tell that they are doing that?
I have a class that has gotten out of hand with the sharing. To the point that only a few students are even trying anymore.
Any suggestions?
That’s tough. One thing I do is make them add a unique element to each project - welcome screen, music, extra features…so they have a signature on their product that makes it theirs.
I find the students copying means that they can’t do it on their own. So I need to give more do now quizzes/check ins where I clarify misconceptions and slow down the pace. Also I give them an opportunity to submit incomplete work with an description of what isn’t working. Then I can individually address their issue and allow them space for revisions.
That sounds tough. One suggestion I found in the facebook group was having an explicit conversation with students that cheating is easy. The reason why we don’t cheat is not because cheating is hard, but instead it doesn’t make sense from a learning perspective. I think the person who posted pointed to research on having these conversations with students (but I am not sure).
I am wondering if grades are motivating students to cheat? Sometimes I find if I tie a high-stakes grade to a task students cheat out of fear of doing poorly. But if the work is more “practice” and not really worth a high stakes grade, then there is no reason at all to cheat. Would that help?