6.10.1

Collaboration and the Honor Code

Please read the computer science department’s collaboration policy for the 2017 term.

Collaboration in computer science courses can be a tricky thing. On one hand, we (the instructors) want to establish an environment wherein you are encouaraged to openly discuss course ideas among your peers. On the other, these discussions can easily devolve into grey areas where you may provide unauthorized help. Worse, it is often harder to anticipate which things are allowable or not when you don’t know the material beforehand. For example, typing up someone’s code for them is obviously wrong, but what about telling them where to insert a semicolon?

We will discuss acceptable collaboration, along with a number of other tricky issues (e.g., copyright violation) on the first day of class. The basic idea is that we encouarage you to share information to help someone learn the concepts, but not to help someone to complete the project.

We also realize that this can be a tricky thing to decide. Whenever you feel uncomfortable or in doubt, please see us in office hours or post a (potentially private and anonymous) question on Piazza.