Subj : Re: Are programmers like this in the real world?
To   : comp.programming
From : Ben Pfaff
Date : Mon Jul 25 2005 11:41 pm

Chris McDonald <chris@csse.uwa.edu.au> writes:

> Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> writes:
>>[...3 out of 80 students cheating...]
>>I hope this isn't typical.
>
> I'm not sure if I'm missing any possible saracism in this post,
> but, no, Ben's experience is *far from* typical.
>
> I can unequivocably state that plagiarism rates in many university CS
> courses, particularly in the first or second years, are far closer to
> 20%-30% of all students.  It's no big secret that it occurs.

I was not attempting any form of sarcasm.  3 out of 80, or about
4%, seems much too high to me.  I'd be very distressed to hear
about a plagiarism rate five times that.

Do you know about anyone who has looked at the problem?  I'm
naturally suspicious of something that "everyone knows."

At Stanford, students found cheating are normally suspended for a
full academic quarter.  This is a stricter policy than most, as I
understand it.  I wonder if it has any impact?
-- 
"[I]n this era of constant innovation,
 it takes a special kind of person to look evolution in the eye
 and say "huh?"."
--Chris Hacking

.