Accidentally leaked the solution to an assignment, what to do now? (I'm the prof)












32















TL;DR; I accidentally made the solution of an assignment visible to some of my students. How can I now fairly address that problem?



A few weeks ago I set a programming assignment to be done using Processing (a graphical programming tool), and to make sure the goal was clear I implemented a solution on openprocessing.org, which I made available to the students. On openprocessing.org, they can look at the working program (a little graphical game similar to tic-tac-toe), but the source code is hidden to them (I took a paid account to get private source code).
But then I embedded the openprocessing.org 'sketch' (a web page that displays the working program as described above) in a different web page, and failed to notice that the embedded version has the source code readily available (the person viewing the sketch just clicks an icon at the top and they get the editor with the source code). I think that's a bug with openprocessing.org and I complained to them (and there's obviously also an oversight on my part), but that's not relevant to my issue.



So basically the solution to the assignment was available to anybody who clicked that button at the top. It's not obvious, so I think only a few students noticed it. One team emailed me asking whether it was intentional and expressing their concern.
The assignment deadline is in 5 days (it's been up for 2 weeks) and it's the end of the term. This was supposed to be 10% of their grade.
I took down the visible solution, and I' trying to come up with a contingency plan. I could cancel the whole assignment, or give everyone full marks... Just let those who saw it submit as is (and indicate the source). I just don't know how to handle this best.



Any suggestions or recommendations?










share|improve this question




















  • 4





    Yeah just give the solutions to everyone to be fair. Too late to change grading and requirements. But hopefully you are curving the grade so the effect is nothing.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    11 hours ago






  • 9





    @ASimpleAlgorithm "hopefully you are curving the grade" I am not convinced grading on a curve is necessarily better.

    – Davidmh
    11 hours ago






  • 2





    This is something you need to be discussing with whoever's in charge of teaching in your department, not random strangers on the internet.

    – David Richerby
    10 hours ago






  • 2





    @Davidmh Are you speaking generally about curving, or about its value in this particular case? Because my statement was in regard to the benefits of curving in this particular case. By giving out the answers so everyone gains equally, no one gains an advantage in the curve. As for general complaints about curving, I probably don't curve in a way that has the drawbacks you are thinking of.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    10 hours ago






  • 2





    What does your school's academic honesty policy say about using the solution? Just because it was made available doesn't necessarily make it fair game for anyone who found it. (This doesn't help redress the situation for students who didn't use the solution, or help you determine which ones did, of course.)

    – chepner
    7 hours ago
















32















TL;DR; I accidentally made the solution of an assignment visible to some of my students. How can I now fairly address that problem?



A few weeks ago I set a programming assignment to be done using Processing (a graphical programming tool), and to make sure the goal was clear I implemented a solution on openprocessing.org, which I made available to the students. On openprocessing.org, they can look at the working program (a little graphical game similar to tic-tac-toe), but the source code is hidden to them (I took a paid account to get private source code).
But then I embedded the openprocessing.org 'sketch' (a web page that displays the working program as described above) in a different web page, and failed to notice that the embedded version has the source code readily available (the person viewing the sketch just clicks an icon at the top and they get the editor with the source code). I think that's a bug with openprocessing.org and I complained to them (and there's obviously also an oversight on my part), but that's not relevant to my issue.



So basically the solution to the assignment was available to anybody who clicked that button at the top. It's not obvious, so I think only a few students noticed it. One team emailed me asking whether it was intentional and expressing their concern.
The assignment deadline is in 5 days (it's been up for 2 weeks) and it's the end of the term. This was supposed to be 10% of their grade.
I took down the visible solution, and I' trying to come up with a contingency plan. I could cancel the whole assignment, or give everyone full marks... Just let those who saw it submit as is (and indicate the source). I just don't know how to handle this best.



Any suggestions or recommendations?










share|improve this question




















  • 4





    Yeah just give the solutions to everyone to be fair. Too late to change grading and requirements. But hopefully you are curving the grade so the effect is nothing.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    11 hours ago






  • 9





    @ASimpleAlgorithm "hopefully you are curving the grade" I am not convinced grading on a curve is necessarily better.

    – Davidmh
    11 hours ago






  • 2





    This is something you need to be discussing with whoever's in charge of teaching in your department, not random strangers on the internet.

    – David Richerby
    10 hours ago






  • 2





    @Davidmh Are you speaking generally about curving, or about its value in this particular case? Because my statement was in regard to the benefits of curving in this particular case. By giving out the answers so everyone gains equally, no one gains an advantage in the curve. As for general complaints about curving, I probably don't curve in a way that has the drawbacks you are thinking of.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    10 hours ago






  • 2





    What does your school's academic honesty policy say about using the solution? Just because it was made available doesn't necessarily make it fair game for anyone who found it. (This doesn't help redress the situation for students who didn't use the solution, or help you determine which ones did, of course.)

    – chepner
    7 hours ago














32












32








32


2






TL;DR; I accidentally made the solution of an assignment visible to some of my students. How can I now fairly address that problem?



A few weeks ago I set a programming assignment to be done using Processing (a graphical programming tool), and to make sure the goal was clear I implemented a solution on openprocessing.org, which I made available to the students. On openprocessing.org, they can look at the working program (a little graphical game similar to tic-tac-toe), but the source code is hidden to them (I took a paid account to get private source code).
But then I embedded the openprocessing.org 'sketch' (a web page that displays the working program as described above) in a different web page, and failed to notice that the embedded version has the source code readily available (the person viewing the sketch just clicks an icon at the top and they get the editor with the source code). I think that's a bug with openprocessing.org and I complained to them (and there's obviously also an oversight on my part), but that's not relevant to my issue.



So basically the solution to the assignment was available to anybody who clicked that button at the top. It's not obvious, so I think only a few students noticed it. One team emailed me asking whether it was intentional and expressing their concern.
The assignment deadline is in 5 days (it's been up for 2 weeks) and it's the end of the term. This was supposed to be 10% of their grade.
I took down the visible solution, and I' trying to come up with a contingency plan. I could cancel the whole assignment, or give everyone full marks... Just let those who saw it submit as is (and indicate the source). I just don't know how to handle this best.



Any suggestions or recommendations?










share|improve this question
















TL;DR; I accidentally made the solution of an assignment visible to some of my students. How can I now fairly address that problem?



A few weeks ago I set a programming assignment to be done using Processing (a graphical programming tool), and to make sure the goal was clear I implemented a solution on openprocessing.org, which I made available to the students. On openprocessing.org, they can look at the working program (a little graphical game similar to tic-tac-toe), but the source code is hidden to them (I took a paid account to get private source code).
But then I embedded the openprocessing.org 'sketch' (a web page that displays the working program as described above) in a different web page, and failed to notice that the embedded version has the source code readily available (the person viewing the sketch just clicks an icon at the top and they get the editor with the source code). I think that's a bug with openprocessing.org and I complained to them (and there's obviously also an oversight on my part), but that's not relevant to my issue.



So basically the solution to the assignment was available to anybody who clicked that button at the top. It's not obvious, so I think only a few students noticed it. One team emailed me asking whether it was intentional and expressing their concern.
The assignment deadline is in 5 days (it's been up for 2 weeks) and it's the end of the term. This was supposed to be 10% of their grade.
I took down the visible solution, and I' trying to come up with a contingency plan. I could cancel the whole assignment, or give everyone full marks... Just let those who saw it submit as is (and indicate the source). I just don't know how to handle this best.



Any suggestions or recommendations?







teaching assignment






share|improve this question















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share|improve this question








edited 12 hours ago









Bryan Krause

16k34468




16k34468










asked 12 hours ago









user3780968user3780968

82969




82969








  • 4





    Yeah just give the solutions to everyone to be fair. Too late to change grading and requirements. But hopefully you are curving the grade so the effect is nothing.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    11 hours ago






  • 9





    @ASimpleAlgorithm "hopefully you are curving the grade" I am not convinced grading on a curve is necessarily better.

    – Davidmh
    11 hours ago






  • 2





    This is something you need to be discussing with whoever's in charge of teaching in your department, not random strangers on the internet.

    – David Richerby
    10 hours ago






  • 2





    @Davidmh Are you speaking generally about curving, or about its value in this particular case? Because my statement was in regard to the benefits of curving in this particular case. By giving out the answers so everyone gains equally, no one gains an advantage in the curve. As for general complaints about curving, I probably don't curve in a way that has the drawbacks you are thinking of.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    10 hours ago






  • 2





    What does your school's academic honesty policy say about using the solution? Just because it was made available doesn't necessarily make it fair game for anyone who found it. (This doesn't help redress the situation for students who didn't use the solution, or help you determine which ones did, of course.)

    – chepner
    7 hours ago














  • 4





    Yeah just give the solutions to everyone to be fair. Too late to change grading and requirements. But hopefully you are curving the grade so the effect is nothing.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    11 hours ago






  • 9





    @ASimpleAlgorithm "hopefully you are curving the grade" I am not convinced grading on a curve is necessarily better.

    – Davidmh
    11 hours ago






  • 2





    This is something you need to be discussing with whoever's in charge of teaching in your department, not random strangers on the internet.

    – David Richerby
    10 hours ago






  • 2





    @Davidmh Are you speaking generally about curving, or about its value in this particular case? Because my statement was in regard to the benefits of curving in this particular case. By giving out the answers so everyone gains equally, no one gains an advantage in the curve. As for general complaints about curving, I probably don't curve in a way that has the drawbacks you are thinking of.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    10 hours ago






  • 2





    What does your school's academic honesty policy say about using the solution? Just because it was made available doesn't necessarily make it fair game for anyone who found it. (This doesn't help redress the situation for students who didn't use the solution, or help you determine which ones did, of course.)

    – chepner
    7 hours ago








4




4





Yeah just give the solutions to everyone to be fair. Too late to change grading and requirements. But hopefully you are curving the grade so the effect is nothing.

– A Simple Algorithm
11 hours ago





Yeah just give the solutions to everyone to be fair. Too late to change grading and requirements. But hopefully you are curving the grade so the effect is nothing.

– A Simple Algorithm
11 hours ago




9




9





@ASimpleAlgorithm "hopefully you are curving the grade" I am not convinced grading on a curve is necessarily better.

– Davidmh
11 hours ago





@ASimpleAlgorithm "hopefully you are curving the grade" I am not convinced grading on a curve is necessarily better.

– Davidmh
11 hours ago




2




2





This is something you need to be discussing with whoever's in charge of teaching in your department, not random strangers on the internet.

– David Richerby
10 hours ago





This is something you need to be discussing with whoever's in charge of teaching in your department, not random strangers on the internet.

– David Richerby
10 hours ago




2




2





@Davidmh Are you speaking generally about curving, or about its value in this particular case? Because my statement was in regard to the benefits of curving in this particular case. By giving out the answers so everyone gains equally, no one gains an advantage in the curve. As for general complaints about curving, I probably don't curve in a way that has the drawbacks you are thinking of.

– A Simple Algorithm
10 hours ago





@Davidmh Are you speaking generally about curving, or about its value in this particular case? Because my statement was in regard to the benefits of curving in this particular case. By giving out the answers so everyone gains equally, no one gains an advantage in the curve. As for general complaints about curving, I probably don't curve in a way that has the drawbacks you are thinking of.

– A Simple Algorithm
10 hours ago




2




2





What does your school's academic honesty policy say about using the solution? Just because it was made available doesn't necessarily make it fair game for anyone who found it. (This doesn't help redress the situation for students who didn't use the solution, or help you determine which ones did, of course.)

– chepner
7 hours ago





What does your school's academic honesty policy say about using the solution? Just because it was made available doesn't necessarily make it fair game for anyone who found it. (This doesn't help redress the situation for students who didn't use the solution, or help you determine which ones did, of course.)

– chepner
7 hours ago










8 Answers
8






active

oldest

votes


















43














Very simple actually. Abandon the assignment. Apologize for the error, but not for wasting people's time. Those who didn't find the solution and worked on it certainly learned something. Those who found the solution used their time otherwise and hopefully learned something else.



Mistakes happen.



If you use a large number of exercises in grading it is probably harmless to give everyone full marks. They will be happy and it won't really matter otherwise. But trying, in any way, to discriminate between various levels of "performance" on such an exercise is a minefield.



One thing to remember, however. Presumably you gave that assignment because students would be expected to learn some specific thing(s) by doing it. That may not have occurred, so you need to assure that you find some way to reinforce that lesson in some future activity.






share|improve this answer



















  • 5





    I agree with this aside from probably saying that you should only give the 10% mark to anyone who completed the assignment.

    – Valorum
    12 hours ago






  • 3





    I agree with @Valorum, only those that took the time to complete the assignment (legitimately or copying) should receive full credit, but also go over the submitted assignments, as the ones that actually did do the work on their own will benefit more from having any errors pointed out to them so that they don't make the same error/assumption on the final or later in life.

    – dmoore1181
    11 hours ago











  • @dmoore1181, do you really have a way to know who did what? Or would you just guess and grade accordingly. I agree, of course, that if they did the work they probably learned the appropriate lessons, but it seems impossible to judge that now.

    – Buffy
    11 hours ago






  • 2





    @Buffy, by those that took the time to complete the assignment, I mean turned in anything at all. Sorry for the confusion.

    – dmoore1181
    11 hours ago






  • 2





    If you are grading on a curve, I'd highly suggest counting the assignment as 0 points, fitting the curve, then adding back 10 points to everyone. Some students may have been depending on their high performance on the assignment relative to their peers to increase their grade. If you give everyone full marks but curve afterwards, you rob them of that opportunity. By curving first, you give everyone the same grade bump, but may need to explain to your superiors why your resulting class grade distribution does not fit the expected curve.

    – MooseBoys
    10 hours ago



















29














Leave the solution visible. Comment on it to everyone (so it is fair). Still require everyone to turn in a solution, but cannot be verbatim copy (but they can copy the algorithm/ideas/etc).



Then, announce and include that same tool/problem solving technique in the final exam. Those who work the hardest on understanding (not just copying) will be rewarded for their effort. Those who do not, will not do as well on the final.



Naturally the final has less time to do the work, but they have already seen an explicit way to work out that type of problem. If it is too big, you could provide some pieces, and they have to add the remaining functions.



The net effect of leaking the solution will just that everyone studies it to learn the tool for their exam.






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  • Thoroughly agree on leaving the solution visible. It is important that everyone has transparent access to it. I remember a particularly hard class I had where some students used a solution manual (against the rules) and I did not. Ironically, the students breaking rules with the solution manual learned a lot more than I did because I had no way to learn how to do the problems.

    – chessofnerd
    1 hour ago



















12














I would just give them all the 10% saying that you made the solution available by accident - they will laugh and forget in 10 minutes. And, yes, been there, done that... You are not alone.



Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve - nothing wrong with those I hope.






share|improve this answer
























  • >Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve. There has been no mention of a curve in the question.

    – technical_difficulty
    2 hours ago



















6














You might be able to measure the damage by just asking the students. Most students are honest if you're transparent with them (though some campus cultures might be different than others). Consider asking each student to attach a signed statement to their assignment saying that they cited any resources, including solution sets, that they referenced. You can explicitly mention why you're asking -- tell the students that you will not penalize anyone who saw the solutions, but you do consider it cheating if they lie about it.



If it turns out that everyone saw the solutions, or if you don't feel that the above approach would work in your situation (e.g., very large class, too many unscrupulous students), then I agree with the other answers -- don't grade for "quality." Instead, just grade for effort -- all working solutions get 10/10, regardless of whether they just barely met the requirements from the assignment or whether they are as good as your solution. That way no one who made a good effort would get a lower score than someone who used the solutions.






share|improve this answer





















  • 1





    Basically, the added lesson of properly referencing sources, and how to do so, can be an additional part of the assignment. It can also include a discussion of licensing and what is acceptable to do from a licensing/copyright POV. Overall, this could be a very beneficial learning experience for the students.

    – Makyen
    11 hours ago



















6














You could make the leaked solution available to everyone. However if you only do this, it will be somewhat inequal to students who have already put a lot of work in on the problem, compared to students who have not done much/any work on the assignment yet. That is somewhat balanced by the intrinsic unmeasurable natural usefulness of having worked on assignments, however.



To iron out that inequality, you could also modify the assignment slightly so that it now involves a slight (not major, or else you would be unfairly increasing the expected work load of the class) twist, that will require them to both implement the leaked solution, and then solve some additional problem on top of it that requires understanding the leaked solution and expanding slightly upon it. The extra work should be designed to be more than balanced by the reduced work resulting from having the original solution provided. (Weight the assignment a bit less since most of the assignment solution was provided.)



The advantage of adding a twist designed that way, is that the students still need to do the work and understand the original assignment, and get the deeper experience of building upon it (which is of course a good sort of experience for programming problems).






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    2














    Instead of a programming task, make them explain in a short paper how your solution works, what advantages and disadvantages there are, what compromises you made and so on.






    share|improve this answer































      0














      Ask whoever is responsible for teaching in your department for guidance. It is likely that your university has a policy in place for these sorts of events, and there's no way for strangers on the internet to know what those are.






      share|improve this answer































        -1














        Plagiarism is always something you should be worrying about. Especially for an undergraduate class like this where there are plenty of solutions online for building a tictactoe game, or even building it in processing. If people wanted to copy, they would likely have found someone else's solution online due to yours being hidden.



        If you are worried that someone may copy of it, the simplest way to address the problem is to tell the class what happened and to remind them that copying your solution is plagiarism.






        share|improve this answer
























        • For programming assignments such as this, sometimes it is hard to come up with a new solution - but once you've seen and understood a working solution, the problem becomes much easier (even if you're not copying anything). It is certainly difficult to argue that students who saw it, even if briefly and without malicious intent, didn't have an unfair advantage.

          – osuka_
          8 hours ago











        • It is not an unfair advantage. Any student is able to use the internet or read a book to research good ways to approach the problem. Using the internet, books, tutors, etc outside of class are a great way to supplement your learning. Just because some choose to do more outside of class, does not make it unfair.

          – Anon
          2 hours ago











        • It is unfair because the students who accessed it before it was pulled saw the tailored solution to the problem (i.e., the exact solution the instructor was expecting, given it is their own implementation). Every single student in the class had access to the internet; only the ones who noticed, in time, that the solution was available on the test website had access to that source code.

          – osuka_
          1 hour ago












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        8 Answers
        8






        active

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        8 Answers
        8






        active

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        active

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        43














        Very simple actually. Abandon the assignment. Apologize for the error, but not for wasting people's time. Those who didn't find the solution and worked on it certainly learned something. Those who found the solution used their time otherwise and hopefully learned something else.



        Mistakes happen.



        If you use a large number of exercises in grading it is probably harmless to give everyone full marks. They will be happy and it won't really matter otherwise. But trying, in any way, to discriminate between various levels of "performance" on such an exercise is a minefield.



        One thing to remember, however. Presumably you gave that assignment because students would be expected to learn some specific thing(s) by doing it. That may not have occurred, so you need to assure that you find some way to reinforce that lesson in some future activity.






        share|improve this answer



















        • 5





          I agree with this aside from probably saying that you should only give the 10% mark to anyone who completed the assignment.

          – Valorum
          12 hours ago






        • 3





          I agree with @Valorum, only those that took the time to complete the assignment (legitimately or copying) should receive full credit, but also go over the submitted assignments, as the ones that actually did do the work on their own will benefit more from having any errors pointed out to them so that they don't make the same error/assumption on the final or later in life.

          – dmoore1181
          11 hours ago











        • @dmoore1181, do you really have a way to know who did what? Or would you just guess and grade accordingly. I agree, of course, that if they did the work they probably learned the appropriate lessons, but it seems impossible to judge that now.

          – Buffy
          11 hours ago






        • 2





          @Buffy, by those that took the time to complete the assignment, I mean turned in anything at all. Sorry for the confusion.

          – dmoore1181
          11 hours ago






        • 2





          If you are grading on a curve, I'd highly suggest counting the assignment as 0 points, fitting the curve, then adding back 10 points to everyone. Some students may have been depending on their high performance on the assignment relative to their peers to increase their grade. If you give everyone full marks but curve afterwards, you rob them of that opportunity. By curving first, you give everyone the same grade bump, but may need to explain to your superiors why your resulting class grade distribution does not fit the expected curve.

          – MooseBoys
          10 hours ago
















        43














        Very simple actually. Abandon the assignment. Apologize for the error, but not for wasting people's time. Those who didn't find the solution and worked on it certainly learned something. Those who found the solution used their time otherwise and hopefully learned something else.



        Mistakes happen.



        If you use a large number of exercises in grading it is probably harmless to give everyone full marks. They will be happy and it won't really matter otherwise. But trying, in any way, to discriminate between various levels of "performance" on such an exercise is a minefield.



        One thing to remember, however. Presumably you gave that assignment because students would be expected to learn some specific thing(s) by doing it. That may not have occurred, so you need to assure that you find some way to reinforce that lesson in some future activity.






        share|improve this answer



















        • 5





          I agree with this aside from probably saying that you should only give the 10% mark to anyone who completed the assignment.

          – Valorum
          12 hours ago






        • 3





          I agree with @Valorum, only those that took the time to complete the assignment (legitimately or copying) should receive full credit, but also go over the submitted assignments, as the ones that actually did do the work on their own will benefit more from having any errors pointed out to them so that they don't make the same error/assumption on the final or later in life.

          – dmoore1181
          11 hours ago











        • @dmoore1181, do you really have a way to know who did what? Or would you just guess and grade accordingly. I agree, of course, that if they did the work they probably learned the appropriate lessons, but it seems impossible to judge that now.

          – Buffy
          11 hours ago






        • 2





          @Buffy, by those that took the time to complete the assignment, I mean turned in anything at all. Sorry for the confusion.

          – dmoore1181
          11 hours ago






        • 2





          If you are grading on a curve, I'd highly suggest counting the assignment as 0 points, fitting the curve, then adding back 10 points to everyone. Some students may have been depending on their high performance on the assignment relative to their peers to increase their grade. If you give everyone full marks but curve afterwards, you rob them of that opportunity. By curving first, you give everyone the same grade bump, but may need to explain to your superiors why your resulting class grade distribution does not fit the expected curve.

          – MooseBoys
          10 hours ago














        43












        43








        43







        Very simple actually. Abandon the assignment. Apologize for the error, but not for wasting people's time. Those who didn't find the solution and worked on it certainly learned something. Those who found the solution used their time otherwise and hopefully learned something else.



        Mistakes happen.



        If you use a large number of exercises in grading it is probably harmless to give everyone full marks. They will be happy and it won't really matter otherwise. But trying, in any way, to discriminate between various levels of "performance" on such an exercise is a minefield.



        One thing to remember, however. Presumably you gave that assignment because students would be expected to learn some specific thing(s) by doing it. That may not have occurred, so you need to assure that you find some way to reinforce that lesson in some future activity.






        share|improve this answer













        Very simple actually. Abandon the assignment. Apologize for the error, but not for wasting people's time. Those who didn't find the solution and worked on it certainly learned something. Those who found the solution used their time otherwise and hopefully learned something else.



        Mistakes happen.



        If you use a large number of exercises in grading it is probably harmless to give everyone full marks. They will be happy and it won't really matter otherwise. But trying, in any way, to discriminate between various levels of "performance" on such an exercise is a minefield.



        One thing to remember, however. Presumably you gave that assignment because students would be expected to learn some specific thing(s) by doing it. That may not have occurred, so you need to assure that you find some way to reinforce that lesson in some future activity.







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered 12 hours ago









        BuffyBuffy

        56.1k16176272




        56.1k16176272








        • 5





          I agree with this aside from probably saying that you should only give the 10% mark to anyone who completed the assignment.

          – Valorum
          12 hours ago






        • 3





          I agree with @Valorum, only those that took the time to complete the assignment (legitimately or copying) should receive full credit, but also go over the submitted assignments, as the ones that actually did do the work on their own will benefit more from having any errors pointed out to them so that they don't make the same error/assumption on the final or later in life.

          – dmoore1181
          11 hours ago











        • @dmoore1181, do you really have a way to know who did what? Or would you just guess and grade accordingly. I agree, of course, that if they did the work they probably learned the appropriate lessons, but it seems impossible to judge that now.

          – Buffy
          11 hours ago






        • 2





          @Buffy, by those that took the time to complete the assignment, I mean turned in anything at all. Sorry for the confusion.

          – dmoore1181
          11 hours ago






        • 2





          If you are grading on a curve, I'd highly suggest counting the assignment as 0 points, fitting the curve, then adding back 10 points to everyone. Some students may have been depending on their high performance on the assignment relative to their peers to increase their grade. If you give everyone full marks but curve afterwards, you rob them of that opportunity. By curving first, you give everyone the same grade bump, but may need to explain to your superiors why your resulting class grade distribution does not fit the expected curve.

          – MooseBoys
          10 hours ago














        • 5





          I agree with this aside from probably saying that you should only give the 10% mark to anyone who completed the assignment.

          – Valorum
          12 hours ago






        • 3





          I agree with @Valorum, only those that took the time to complete the assignment (legitimately or copying) should receive full credit, but also go over the submitted assignments, as the ones that actually did do the work on their own will benefit more from having any errors pointed out to them so that they don't make the same error/assumption on the final or later in life.

          – dmoore1181
          11 hours ago











        • @dmoore1181, do you really have a way to know who did what? Or would you just guess and grade accordingly. I agree, of course, that if they did the work they probably learned the appropriate lessons, but it seems impossible to judge that now.

          – Buffy
          11 hours ago






        • 2





          @Buffy, by those that took the time to complete the assignment, I mean turned in anything at all. Sorry for the confusion.

          – dmoore1181
          11 hours ago






        • 2





          If you are grading on a curve, I'd highly suggest counting the assignment as 0 points, fitting the curve, then adding back 10 points to everyone. Some students may have been depending on their high performance on the assignment relative to their peers to increase their grade. If you give everyone full marks but curve afterwards, you rob them of that opportunity. By curving first, you give everyone the same grade bump, but may need to explain to your superiors why your resulting class grade distribution does not fit the expected curve.

          – MooseBoys
          10 hours ago








        5




        5





        I agree with this aside from probably saying that you should only give the 10% mark to anyone who completed the assignment.

        – Valorum
        12 hours ago





        I agree with this aside from probably saying that you should only give the 10% mark to anyone who completed the assignment.

        – Valorum
        12 hours ago




        3




        3





        I agree with @Valorum, only those that took the time to complete the assignment (legitimately or copying) should receive full credit, but also go over the submitted assignments, as the ones that actually did do the work on their own will benefit more from having any errors pointed out to them so that they don't make the same error/assumption on the final or later in life.

        – dmoore1181
        11 hours ago





        I agree with @Valorum, only those that took the time to complete the assignment (legitimately or copying) should receive full credit, but also go over the submitted assignments, as the ones that actually did do the work on their own will benefit more from having any errors pointed out to them so that they don't make the same error/assumption on the final or later in life.

        – dmoore1181
        11 hours ago













        @dmoore1181, do you really have a way to know who did what? Or would you just guess and grade accordingly. I agree, of course, that if they did the work they probably learned the appropriate lessons, but it seems impossible to judge that now.

        – Buffy
        11 hours ago





        @dmoore1181, do you really have a way to know who did what? Or would you just guess and grade accordingly. I agree, of course, that if they did the work they probably learned the appropriate lessons, but it seems impossible to judge that now.

        – Buffy
        11 hours ago




        2




        2





        @Buffy, by those that took the time to complete the assignment, I mean turned in anything at all. Sorry for the confusion.

        – dmoore1181
        11 hours ago





        @Buffy, by those that took the time to complete the assignment, I mean turned in anything at all. Sorry for the confusion.

        – dmoore1181
        11 hours ago




        2




        2





        If you are grading on a curve, I'd highly suggest counting the assignment as 0 points, fitting the curve, then adding back 10 points to everyone. Some students may have been depending on their high performance on the assignment relative to their peers to increase their grade. If you give everyone full marks but curve afterwards, you rob them of that opportunity. By curving first, you give everyone the same grade bump, but may need to explain to your superiors why your resulting class grade distribution does not fit the expected curve.

        – MooseBoys
        10 hours ago





        If you are grading on a curve, I'd highly suggest counting the assignment as 0 points, fitting the curve, then adding back 10 points to everyone. Some students may have been depending on their high performance on the assignment relative to their peers to increase their grade. If you give everyone full marks but curve afterwards, you rob them of that opportunity. By curving first, you give everyone the same grade bump, but may need to explain to your superiors why your resulting class grade distribution does not fit the expected curve.

        – MooseBoys
        10 hours ago











        29














        Leave the solution visible. Comment on it to everyone (so it is fair). Still require everyone to turn in a solution, but cannot be verbatim copy (but they can copy the algorithm/ideas/etc).



        Then, announce and include that same tool/problem solving technique in the final exam. Those who work the hardest on understanding (not just copying) will be rewarded for their effort. Those who do not, will not do as well on the final.



        Naturally the final has less time to do the work, but they have already seen an explicit way to work out that type of problem. If it is too big, you could provide some pieces, and they have to add the remaining functions.



        The net effect of leaking the solution will just that everyone studies it to learn the tool for their exam.






        share|improve this answer








        New contributor




        Paul is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.





















        • Thoroughly agree on leaving the solution visible. It is important that everyone has transparent access to it. I remember a particularly hard class I had where some students used a solution manual (against the rules) and I did not. Ironically, the students breaking rules with the solution manual learned a lot more than I did because I had no way to learn how to do the problems.

          – chessofnerd
          1 hour ago
















        29














        Leave the solution visible. Comment on it to everyone (so it is fair). Still require everyone to turn in a solution, but cannot be verbatim copy (but they can copy the algorithm/ideas/etc).



        Then, announce and include that same tool/problem solving technique in the final exam. Those who work the hardest on understanding (not just copying) will be rewarded for their effort. Those who do not, will not do as well on the final.



        Naturally the final has less time to do the work, but they have already seen an explicit way to work out that type of problem. If it is too big, you could provide some pieces, and they have to add the remaining functions.



        The net effect of leaking the solution will just that everyone studies it to learn the tool for their exam.






        share|improve this answer








        New contributor




        Paul is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.





















        • Thoroughly agree on leaving the solution visible. It is important that everyone has transparent access to it. I remember a particularly hard class I had where some students used a solution manual (against the rules) and I did not. Ironically, the students breaking rules with the solution manual learned a lot more than I did because I had no way to learn how to do the problems.

          – chessofnerd
          1 hour ago














        29












        29








        29







        Leave the solution visible. Comment on it to everyone (so it is fair). Still require everyone to turn in a solution, but cannot be verbatim copy (but they can copy the algorithm/ideas/etc).



        Then, announce and include that same tool/problem solving technique in the final exam. Those who work the hardest on understanding (not just copying) will be rewarded for their effort. Those who do not, will not do as well on the final.



        Naturally the final has less time to do the work, but they have already seen an explicit way to work out that type of problem. If it is too big, you could provide some pieces, and they have to add the remaining functions.



        The net effect of leaking the solution will just that everyone studies it to learn the tool for their exam.






        share|improve this answer








        New contributor




        Paul is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.










        Leave the solution visible. Comment on it to everyone (so it is fair). Still require everyone to turn in a solution, but cannot be verbatim copy (but they can copy the algorithm/ideas/etc).



        Then, announce and include that same tool/problem solving technique in the final exam. Those who work the hardest on understanding (not just copying) will be rewarded for their effort. Those who do not, will not do as well on the final.



        Naturally the final has less time to do the work, but they have already seen an explicit way to work out that type of problem. If it is too big, you could provide some pieces, and they have to add the remaining functions.



        The net effect of leaking the solution will just that everyone studies it to learn the tool for their exam.







        share|improve this answer








        New contributor




        Paul is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.









        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer






        New contributor




        Paul is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.









        answered 10 hours ago









        PaulPaul

        36114




        36114




        New contributor




        Paul is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.





        New contributor





        Paul is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.






        Paul is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.













        • Thoroughly agree on leaving the solution visible. It is important that everyone has transparent access to it. I remember a particularly hard class I had where some students used a solution manual (against the rules) and I did not. Ironically, the students breaking rules with the solution manual learned a lot more than I did because I had no way to learn how to do the problems.

          – chessofnerd
          1 hour ago



















        • Thoroughly agree on leaving the solution visible. It is important that everyone has transparent access to it. I remember a particularly hard class I had where some students used a solution manual (against the rules) and I did not. Ironically, the students breaking rules with the solution manual learned a lot more than I did because I had no way to learn how to do the problems.

          – chessofnerd
          1 hour ago

















        Thoroughly agree on leaving the solution visible. It is important that everyone has transparent access to it. I remember a particularly hard class I had where some students used a solution manual (against the rules) and I did not. Ironically, the students breaking rules with the solution manual learned a lot more than I did because I had no way to learn how to do the problems.

        – chessofnerd
        1 hour ago





        Thoroughly agree on leaving the solution visible. It is important that everyone has transparent access to it. I remember a particularly hard class I had where some students used a solution manual (against the rules) and I did not. Ironically, the students breaking rules with the solution manual learned a lot more than I did because I had no way to learn how to do the problems.

        – chessofnerd
        1 hour ago











        12














        I would just give them all the 10% saying that you made the solution available by accident - they will laugh and forget in 10 minutes. And, yes, been there, done that... You are not alone.



        Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve - nothing wrong with those I hope.






        share|improve this answer
























        • >Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve. There has been no mention of a curve in the question.

          – technical_difficulty
          2 hours ago
















        12














        I would just give them all the 10% saying that you made the solution available by accident - they will laugh and forget in 10 minutes. And, yes, been there, done that... You are not alone.



        Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve - nothing wrong with those I hope.






        share|improve this answer
























        • >Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve. There has been no mention of a curve in the question.

          – technical_difficulty
          2 hours ago














        12












        12








        12







        I would just give them all the 10% saying that you made the solution available by accident - they will laugh and forget in 10 minutes. And, yes, been there, done that... You are not alone.



        Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve - nothing wrong with those I hope.






        share|improve this answer













        I would just give them all the 10% saying that you made the solution available by accident - they will laugh and forget in 10 minutes. And, yes, been there, done that... You are not alone.



        Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve - nothing wrong with those I hope.







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered 12 hours ago









        Solar MikeSolar Mike

        14.8k52654




        14.8k52654













        • >Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve. There has been no mention of a curve in the question.

          – technical_difficulty
          2 hours ago



















        • >Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve. There has been no mention of a curve in the question.

          – technical_difficulty
          2 hours ago

















        >Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve. There has been no mention of a curve in the question.

        – technical_difficulty
        2 hours ago





        >Just rely on the other 90% to give you the grading curve. There has been no mention of a curve in the question.

        – technical_difficulty
        2 hours ago











        6














        You might be able to measure the damage by just asking the students. Most students are honest if you're transparent with them (though some campus cultures might be different than others). Consider asking each student to attach a signed statement to their assignment saying that they cited any resources, including solution sets, that they referenced. You can explicitly mention why you're asking -- tell the students that you will not penalize anyone who saw the solutions, but you do consider it cheating if they lie about it.



        If it turns out that everyone saw the solutions, or if you don't feel that the above approach would work in your situation (e.g., very large class, too many unscrupulous students), then I agree with the other answers -- don't grade for "quality." Instead, just grade for effort -- all working solutions get 10/10, regardless of whether they just barely met the requirements from the assignment or whether they are as good as your solution. That way no one who made a good effort would get a lower score than someone who used the solutions.






        share|improve this answer





















        • 1





          Basically, the added lesson of properly referencing sources, and how to do so, can be an additional part of the assignment. It can also include a discussion of licensing and what is acceptable to do from a licensing/copyright POV. Overall, this could be a very beneficial learning experience for the students.

          – Makyen
          11 hours ago
















        6














        You might be able to measure the damage by just asking the students. Most students are honest if you're transparent with them (though some campus cultures might be different than others). Consider asking each student to attach a signed statement to their assignment saying that they cited any resources, including solution sets, that they referenced. You can explicitly mention why you're asking -- tell the students that you will not penalize anyone who saw the solutions, but you do consider it cheating if they lie about it.



        If it turns out that everyone saw the solutions, or if you don't feel that the above approach would work in your situation (e.g., very large class, too many unscrupulous students), then I agree with the other answers -- don't grade for "quality." Instead, just grade for effort -- all working solutions get 10/10, regardless of whether they just barely met the requirements from the assignment or whether they are as good as your solution. That way no one who made a good effort would get a lower score than someone who used the solutions.






        share|improve this answer





















        • 1





          Basically, the added lesson of properly referencing sources, and how to do so, can be an additional part of the assignment. It can also include a discussion of licensing and what is acceptable to do from a licensing/copyright POV. Overall, this could be a very beneficial learning experience for the students.

          – Makyen
          11 hours ago














        6












        6








        6







        You might be able to measure the damage by just asking the students. Most students are honest if you're transparent with them (though some campus cultures might be different than others). Consider asking each student to attach a signed statement to their assignment saying that they cited any resources, including solution sets, that they referenced. You can explicitly mention why you're asking -- tell the students that you will not penalize anyone who saw the solutions, but you do consider it cheating if they lie about it.



        If it turns out that everyone saw the solutions, or if you don't feel that the above approach would work in your situation (e.g., very large class, too many unscrupulous students), then I agree with the other answers -- don't grade for "quality." Instead, just grade for effort -- all working solutions get 10/10, regardless of whether they just barely met the requirements from the assignment or whether they are as good as your solution. That way no one who made a good effort would get a lower score than someone who used the solutions.






        share|improve this answer















        You might be able to measure the damage by just asking the students. Most students are honest if you're transparent with them (though some campus cultures might be different than others). Consider asking each student to attach a signed statement to their assignment saying that they cited any resources, including solution sets, that they referenced. You can explicitly mention why you're asking -- tell the students that you will not penalize anyone who saw the solutions, but you do consider it cheating if they lie about it.



        If it turns out that everyone saw the solutions, or if you don't feel that the above approach would work in your situation (e.g., very large class, too many unscrupulous students), then I agree with the other answers -- don't grade for "quality." Instead, just grade for effort -- all working solutions get 10/10, regardless of whether they just barely met the requirements from the assignment or whether they are as good as your solution. That way no one who made a good effort would get a lower score than someone who used the solutions.







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited 11 hours ago

























        answered 11 hours ago









        cag51cag51

        18.2k83868




        18.2k83868








        • 1





          Basically, the added lesson of properly referencing sources, and how to do so, can be an additional part of the assignment. It can also include a discussion of licensing and what is acceptable to do from a licensing/copyright POV. Overall, this could be a very beneficial learning experience for the students.

          – Makyen
          11 hours ago














        • 1





          Basically, the added lesson of properly referencing sources, and how to do so, can be an additional part of the assignment. It can also include a discussion of licensing and what is acceptable to do from a licensing/copyright POV. Overall, this could be a very beneficial learning experience for the students.

          – Makyen
          11 hours ago








        1




        1





        Basically, the added lesson of properly referencing sources, and how to do so, can be an additional part of the assignment. It can also include a discussion of licensing and what is acceptable to do from a licensing/copyright POV. Overall, this could be a very beneficial learning experience for the students.

        – Makyen
        11 hours ago





        Basically, the added lesson of properly referencing sources, and how to do so, can be an additional part of the assignment. It can also include a discussion of licensing and what is acceptable to do from a licensing/copyright POV. Overall, this could be a very beneficial learning experience for the students.

        – Makyen
        11 hours ago











        6














        You could make the leaked solution available to everyone. However if you only do this, it will be somewhat inequal to students who have already put a lot of work in on the problem, compared to students who have not done much/any work on the assignment yet. That is somewhat balanced by the intrinsic unmeasurable natural usefulness of having worked on assignments, however.



        To iron out that inequality, you could also modify the assignment slightly so that it now involves a slight (not major, or else you would be unfairly increasing the expected work load of the class) twist, that will require them to both implement the leaked solution, and then solve some additional problem on top of it that requires understanding the leaked solution and expanding slightly upon it. The extra work should be designed to be more than balanced by the reduced work resulting from having the original solution provided. (Weight the assignment a bit less since most of the assignment solution was provided.)



        The advantage of adding a twist designed that way, is that the students still need to do the work and understand the original assignment, and get the deeper experience of building upon it (which is of course a good sort of experience for programming problems).






        share|improve this answer




























          6














          You could make the leaked solution available to everyone. However if you only do this, it will be somewhat inequal to students who have already put a lot of work in on the problem, compared to students who have not done much/any work on the assignment yet. That is somewhat balanced by the intrinsic unmeasurable natural usefulness of having worked on assignments, however.



          To iron out that inequality, you could also modify the assignment slightly so that it now involves a slight (not major, or else you would be unfairly increasing the expected work load of the class) twist, that will require them to both implement the leaked solution, and then solve some additional problem on top of it that requires understanding the leaked solution and expanding slightly upon it. The extra work should be designed to be more than balanced by the reduced work resulting from having the original solution provided. (Weight the assignment a bit less since most of the assignment solution was provided.)



          The advantage of adding a twist designed that way, is that the students still need to do the work and understand the original assignment, and get the deeper experience of building upon it (which is of course a good sort of experience for programming problems).






          share|improve this answer


























            6












            6








            6







            You could make the leaked solution available to everyone. However if you only do this, it will be somewhat inequal to students who have already put a lot of work in on the problem, compared to students who have not done much/any work on the assignment yet. That is somewhat balanced by the intrinsic unmeasurable natural usefulness of having worked on assignments, however.



            To iron out that inequality, you could also modify the assignment slightly so that it now involves a slight (not major, or else you would be unfairly increasing the expected work load of the class) twist, that will require them to both implement the leaked solution, and then solve some additional problem on top of it that requires understanding the leaked solution and expanding slightly upon it. The extra work should be designed to be more than balanced by the reduced work resulting from having the original solution provided. (Weight the assignment a bit less since most of the assignment solution was provided.)



            The advantage of adding a twist designed that way, is that the students still need to do the work and understand the original assignment, and get the deeper experience of building upon it (which is of course a good sort of experience for programming problems).






            share|improve this answer













            You could make the leaked solution available to everyone. However if you only do this, it will be somewhat inequal to students who have already put a lot of work in on the problem, compared to students who have not done much/any work on the assignment yet. That is somewhat balanced by the intrinsic unmeasurable natural usefulness of having worked on assignments, however.



            To iron out that inequality, you could also modify the assignment slightly so that it now involves a slight (not major, or else you would be unfairly increasing the expected work load of the class) twist, that will require them to both implement the leaked solution, and then solve some additional problem on top of it that requires understanding the leaked solution and expanding slightly upon it. The extra work should be designed to be more than balanced by the reduced work resulting from having the original solution provided. (Weight the assignment a bit less since most of the assignment solution was provided.)



            The advantage of adding a twist designed that way, is that the students still need to do the work and understand the original assignment, and get the deeper experience of building upon it (which is of course a good sort of experience for programming problems).







            share|improve this answer












            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer










            answered 9 hours ago









            DronzDronz

            2,3211810




            2,3211810























                2














                Instead of a programming task, make them explain in a short paper how your solution works, what advantages and disadvantages there are, what compromises you made and so on.






                share|improve this answer




























                  2














                  Instead of a programming task, make them explain in a short paper how your solution works, what advantages and disadvantages there are, what compromises you made and so on.






                  share|improve this answer


























                    2












                    2








                    2







                    Instead of a programming task, make them explain in a short paper how your solution works, what advantages and disadvantages there are, what compromises you made and so on.






                    share|improve this answer













                    Instead of a programming task, make them explain in a short paper how your solution works, what advantages and disadvantages there are, what compromises you made and so on.







                    share|improve this answer












                    share|improve this answer



                    share|improve this answer










                    answered 9 hours ago









                    d-bd-b

                    1715




                    1715























                        0














                        Ask whoever is responsible for teaching in your department for guidance. It is likely that your university has a policy in place for these sorts of events, and there's no way for strangers on the internet to know what those are.






                        share|improve this answer




























                          0














                          Ask whoever is responsible for teaching in your department for guidance. It is likely that your university has a policy in place for these sorts of events, and there's no way for strangers on the internet to know what those are.






                          share|improve this answer


























                            0












                            0








                            0







                            Ask whoever is responsible for teaching in your department for guidance. It is likely that your university has a policy in place for these sorts of events, and there's no way for strangers on the internet to know what those are.






                            share|improve this answer













                            Ask whoever is responsible for teaching in your department for guidance. It is likely that your university has a policy in place for these sorts of events, and there's no way for strangers on the internet to know what those are.







                            share|improve this answer












                            share|improve this answer



                            share|improve this answer










                            answered 2 hours ago









                            nick012000nick012000

                            1,4271311




                            1,4271311























                                -1














                                Plagiarism is always something you should be worrying about. Especially for an undergraduate class like this where there are plenty of solutions online for building a tictactoe game, or even building it in processing. If people wanted to copy, they would likely have found someone else's solution online due to yours being hidden.



                                If you are worried that someone may copy of it, the simplest way to address the problem is to tell the class what happened and to remind them that copying your solution is plagiarism.






                                share|improve this answer
























                                • For programming assignments such as this, sometimes it is hard to come up with a new solution - but once you've seen and understood a working solution, the problem becomes much easier (even if you're not copying anything). It is certainly difficult to argue that students who saw it, even if briefly and without malicious intent, didn't have an unfair advantage.

                                  – osuka_
                                  8 hours ago











                                • It is not an unfair advantage. Any student is able to use the internet or read a book to research good ways to approach the problem. Using the internet, books, tutors, etc outside of class are a great way to supplement your learning. Just because some choose to do more outside of class, does not make it unfair.

                                  – Anon
                                  2 hours ago











                                • It is unfair because the students who accessed it before it was pulled saw the tailored solution to the problem (i.e., the exact solution the instructor was expecting, given it is their own implementation). Every single student in the class had access to the internet; only the ones who noticed, in time, that the solution was available on the test website had access to that source code.

                                  – osuka_
                                  1 hour ago
















                                -1














                                Plagiarism is always something you should be worrying about. Especially for an undergraduate class like this where there are plenty of solutions online for building a tictactoe game, or even building it in processing. If people wanted to copy, they would likely have found someone else's solution online due to yours being hidden.



                                If you are worried that someone may copy of it, the simplest way to address the problem is to tell the class what happened and to remind them that copying your solution is plagiarism.






                                share|improve this answer
























                                • For programming assignments such as this, sometimes it is hard to come up with a new solution - but once you've seen and understood a working solution, the problem becomes much easier (even if you're not copying anything). It is certainly difficult to argue that students who saw it, even if briefly and without malicious intent, didn't have an unfair advantage.

                                  – osuka_
                                  8 hours ago











                                • It is not an unfair advantage. Any student is able to use the internet or read a book to research good ways to approach the problem. Using the internet, books, tutors, etc outside of class are a great way to supplement your learning. Just because some choose to do more outside of class, does not make it unfair.

                                  – Anon
                                  2 hours ago











                                • It is unfair because the students who accessed it before it was pulled saw the tailored solution to the problem (i.e., the exact solution the instructor was expecting, given it is their own implementation). Every single student in the class had access to the internet; only the ones who noticed, in time, that the solution was available on the test website had access to that source code.

                                  – osuka_
                                  1 hour ago














                                -1












                                -1








                                -1







                                Plagiarism is always something you should be worrying about. Especially for an undergraduate class like this where there are plenty of solutions online for building a tictactoe game, or even building it in processing. If people wanted to copy, they would likely have found someone else's solution online due to yours being hidden.



                                If you are worried that someone may copy of it, the simplest way to address the problem is to tell the class what happened and to remind them that copying your solution is plagiarism.






                                share|improve this answer













                                Plagiarism is always something you should be worrying about. Especially for an undergraduate class like this where there are plenty of solutions online for building a tictactoe game, or even building it in processing. If people wanted to copy, they would likely have found someone else's solution online due to yours being hidden.



                                If you are worried that someone may copy of it, the simplest way to address the problem is to tell the class what happened and to remind them that copying your solution is plagiarism.







                                share|improve this answer












                                share|improve this answer



                                share|improve this answer










                                answered 11 hours ago









                                AnonAnon

                                2612




                                2612













                                • For programming assignments such as this, sometimes it is hard to come up with a new solution - but once you've seen and understood a working solution, the problem becomes much easier (even if you're not copying anything). It is certainly difficult to argue that students who saw it, even if briefly and without malicious intent, didn't have an unfair advantage.

                                  – osuka_
                                  8 hours ago











                                • It is not an unfair advantage. Any student is able to use the internet or read a book to research good ways to approach the problem. Using the internet, books, tutors, etc outside of class are a great way to supplement your learning. Just because some choose to do more outside of class, does not make it unfair.

                                  – Anon
                                  2 hours ago











                                • It is unfair because the students who accessed it before it was pulled saw the tailored solution to the problem (i.e., the exact solution the instructor was expecting, given it is their own implementation). Every single student in the class had access to the internet; only the ones who noticed, in time, that the solution was available on the test website had access to that source code.

                                  – osuka_
                                  1 hour ago



















                                • For programming assignments such as this, sometimes it is hard to come up with a new solution - but once you've seen and understood a working solution, the problem becomes much easier (even if you're not copying anything). It is certainly difficult to argue that students who saw it, even if briefly and without malicious intent, didn't have an unfair advantage.

                                  – osuka_
                                  8 hours ago











                                • It is not an unfair advantage. Any student is able to use the internet or read a book to research good ways to approach the problem. Using the internet, books, tutors, etc outside of class are a great way to supplement your learning. Just because some choose to do more outside of class, does not make it unfair.

                                  – Anon
                                  2 hours ago











                                • It is unfair because the students who accessed it before it was pulled saw the tailored solution to the problem (i.e., the exact solution the instructor was expecting, given it is their own implementation). Every single student in the class had access to the internet; only the ones who noticed, in time, that the solution was available on the test website had access to that source code.

                                  – osuka_
                                  1 hour ago

















                                For programming assignments such as this, sometimes it is hard to come up with a new solution - but once you've seen and understood a working solution, the problem becomes much easier (even if you're not copying anything). It is certainly difficult to argue that students who saw it, even if briefly and without malicious intent, didn't have an unfair advantage.

                                – osuka_
                                8 hours ago





                                For programming assignments such as this, sometimes it is hard to come up with a new solution - but once you've seen and understood a working solution, the problem becomes much easier (even if you're not copying anything). It is certainly difficult to argue that students who saw it, even if briefly and without malicious intent, didn't have an unfair advantage.

                                – osuka_
                                8 hours ago













                                It is not an unfair advantage. Any student is able to use the internet or read a book to research good ways to approach the problem. Using the internet, books, tutors, etc outside of class are a great way to supplement your learning. Just because some choose to do more outside of class, does not make it unfair.

                                – Anon
                                2 hours ago





                                It is not an unfair advantage. Any student is able to use the internet or read a book to research good ways to approach the problem. Using the internet, books, tutors, etc outside of class are a great way to supplement your learning. Just because some choose to do more outside of class, does not make it unfair.

                                – Anon
                                2 hours ago













                                It is unfair because the students who accessed it before it was pulled saw the tailored solution to the problem (i.e., the exact solution the instructor was expecting, given it is their own implementation). Every single student in the class had access to the internet; only the ones who noticed, in time, that the solution was available on the test website had access to that source code.

                                – osuka_
                                1 hour ago





                                It is unfair because the students who accessed it before it was pulled saw the tailored solution to the problem (i.e., the exact solution the instructor was expecting, given it is their own implementation). Every single student in the class had access to the internet; only the ones who noticed, in time, that the solution was available on the test website had access to that source code.

                                – osuka_
                                1 hour ago


















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