Clarification of Unauthorized Behavior and Consequences

The Northeastern University Academic Integrity Policy forbids students from using, or attempting to use, unauthorized materials and forbids unauthorized collaboration. You should read and understand that policy. It applies to you as a student of Northeastern University.

In general, material is unauthorized if it hasn’t been specifically authorized. However, this present document clarifies that within CS1100, all forms of file sharing are unauthorized. It is your responsibility as a student in CS1100 to read and understand this document.

  • All sharing of lab, quiz or test files in CS1100 is cheating!
  • All sharing of lab files, quiz files or test files in CS1100 is cheating.


    • Students may not:

    Consequences

    1. All students who are caught cheating will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR). Students who have been referred to OSCCR will be given the opportunity to accept responsibility for their infraction or to request a hearing before a student conduct board. If a student accepts responsibility for a minimum sanction of deferred suspension will follow. A second violation will meet with expulsion from the University.
    2. All students who are caught cheating will receive a 0 for the item on which cheating occurred.
    3. All students who are caught cheating will lose 15 points off their final grade for the course.

    No Excuses will be accepted

    If two students submit files, where one file is electronically derived from a copy of the other, or both files are derived from copies of a third, then cheating has taken place. Period. There are no situations where a student is permitted to send his or her files to another student or third party, or to receive a file from another student or third party, or to provide access to another student or third party to one’s files, or to accept access to the files of another student or third party.

    Example

    John is having difficulty submitting a file to Blackboard. He asks Mary to help. Mary uses the computer that has John’s file on it to submit John’s file to John’s Blackboard account. Mary then “accidentally” submits John’s file to her own Blackboard account, instead of her own. Result – Both John and Mary have cheated. Both John and Mary will be referred to OSCCR. Both John and Mary will receive a 0 for that item. Both John and Mary will lose 15 points off their final average for the course. It doesn’t matter that John did not know that Mary would submit his file. It doesn’t matter that Mary submitted the file by mistake. It does matter that John gave Mary access to his file. He has been warned that this constitutes cheating in this class, and he has been warned of the consequences. What John should have done is contacted his instructor asking for help with his problem. What Mary should have done is to tell John to contact the instructor.

    Example

    Bill and Lisa work together on their homework by discussing how they solve various problems. As a result, the files that each submits for homework A solve the problems in the same way. They work together solving the problems for homework B, but Lisa loses the flash drive that contains her homework. Bill reasons that since he knows that Lisa knows how to do the work, he gives Lisa his file. Result – Both Bill and Lisa have cheated on homework B. What Lisa should have done is to redo her homework B. What Bill should have done is to tell Lisa to redo her homework. It is unfortunate that she lost her flash drive. However, if Lisa did her homework once, and really learned how do to solve the problems, rather than just copying from Bill, then she should be able to do the homework a second time.

    Example

    Sally submitted her assignment on time. Tom had a medical excuse to submit his assignment late, but Sally doesn’t know this. Tom tells Sally that he has questions about his grade, and could Sally send him her homework so he can better understand what he did wrong. Sally sends Tom her homework. Tom then modifies Sally’s homework and submits it as his own. Result -- BOTH Tom and Sally will be held responsible for cheating. Both will be referred to OSCCR. Both will receive a 0 for that homework. Both will lose 15 points off their final average for the course. This is unfortunate for Sally, because she was duped. But here is why this will happen. Instructors don’t have ESP. In general, instructors can’t know for certain whether Sally is telling the truth about being duped, or whether Sally and Tom have agreed to tell this story to minimize the consequences for Sally. What instructors do know is that students who are caught cheating will often lie. The instructors of CS1100 don’t want to be in the position of having to make educated guesses as to whether Sally is taking the truth. So, we have banned file sharing completely. Sally knows that we have banned file sharing, and has been warned that is constitutes cheating. It is too bad that Sally was duped by Tom, but she did what she was warned not to do, and now she will receive the consequences – referral to OSCCR, a 0 for the homework and 15 points off their final average for the course.What Sally should have done is to tell Tom that she is not allowed to send Tom files, and that she would face serious consequences if she does.

    Example

    Sarah has completed her assignment on her personal laptop and submitted the assignment. Sarah’s room-mate Jessica has a party on Friday night. Brian is one of the guests. He asks Sarah if he can use her computer to check his email. Sarah permits him to do so, and does not supervise him, or otherwise prevent him from emailing himself a copy of her assignment, which, unfortunately, he does. Brian alters a few things from Sarah’s assignment and submits it as his own. It is clear that Brian has broken the rules. Has Sarah broken the rules? YES! As a student of CS1100, Sarah is specifically prohibited from allowing other persons to use her computer if, by doing so, this gives that person access to her assignment. If she wishes to keep copies of her assignments on her own computer, then she is responsible for keeping those assignments unavailable to other users. She probably won’t like being held responsible, because she didn’t intend for her file to be taken. However, we are often held responsible for things for which we would rather not be held responsible. If you lend a car to someone, and that someone has an accident, you, as owner of the car are legally liable for any damage or bodily harm, even though you were not the driver. If you don’t want to be held responsible in such cases, then don’t lend your car. Similarly, if you lend your computer (or memory stick, or account password) to someone, then you will be held responsible if your assignment file is found to have been in the possession of another student. If you don’t want to be held responsible, then don’t lend your computer (or your memory stick or your account password).

    Example

    Tom and Bill don’t know each other but both are on athletic teams. As athletes, they are given access to computers in Cabot. These computers do not require students to log in with individual personal accounts. Tom completes his homework and saves it to the computer’s Desktop. Bill completes his homework and saves it to the computer’s MyDocuments. Bill then browses to the Blackboard submission page. When he goes to submit, he chooses the file saved by Tom on the Desktop. Have Tom and Bill violated the course policy against cheating? Yes. The policy forbids using shared resources if that use might allow one student to access another student’s work. The computers used by Tom and Bill did not require them to log in with individual personal accounts. As a result, Tom and Bill had access to each other’s work. This is forbidden. Remember not to work on a shared computer unless you log into it with your own personal account.

    Bottom Line

    If two students submit files, where one file is electronically derived from a copy of the other, or both files are derived from copies of a third, then cheating has taken place. Period. There are no situations where a student is permitted to send his or her files to another student or third party, or to receive a file from another student or third party, or to provide access to another student or third party to one’s files, or to accept access to the files of another student or third party.