Integrity of Scholarship

The basic rule for CSE 8A is:  Work hard. Make use of the expertise of the CSE 8A staff to learn what you need to know to really do well in the course.  Don't cheat.

If you do cheat, we will enforce the UCSD Policy on Integrity of Scholarship  (see the General Catalog or the corresponding web page (scroll 2/3 of the way down)). This means:  You will get an F in the course, and the Dean of your college will put you on probation or suspend you from UCSD.

What counts as cheating?

In CSE 8A, you can read books, surf the web, talk to your friends and the CSE 8A staff to get help understanding the concepts you need to know to solve your programming assignment problems. However, you can only work with your assigned partner on programming assignments. That is you must work together on every assignment, not dividing up the work, but working jointly and each understanding what solution you have produced and how and why it works.

The goal of CSE 8A is about skills as much as it about knowledge. Future instructors, employers, and colleagues will expect that you will attain a certain proficiency in problem solving. Using unauthorized aids in doing your work will prevent you from attaining the proficiencies that others will expect. Meeting or not meeting these expectations relate directly to getting internships, retaining employment, and success in your future studies.

In CSE 8A, using program code that someone else has written (unless it was explicitly provided as part of the assignment), or providing program code to someone else, or turning in code that you have written with someone else other than your partner, is considered cheating.  Yes, we do electronically check every program that is turned in.

How can I be sure that my actions are NOT considered cheating?

To ensure you don't have a problem with this, here are some suggestions (in this discussion we aren't talking about your assigned partner):

• Don't even look at or discuss another student's code for a programming assignment you are working on, and don't let another student look at your code.
• Don't start with someone else's code and make changes to it, or in any way share code with other students.
• If you are talking to another student about the assignment, don't take notes, and wait an hour afterward before you write any code.

Also, in CSE 8A, you must write your own answers on the closed-book exams. Getting answers from someone else, or providing answers to someone else, is cheating.

To reinforce these points, every student in CSE 8A must read, understand, and sign the Integrity of Scholarship Agreement. You must turn in an integrity statement to pass the class.