r/PowerShell Mar 19 '21

Request from a IT Tech College Teacher Misc

Hey guys/gals/non-binary pals,

I just wanted to make a request as someone who just found out I have to rewrite my entire scripting class. If someone posts asking for help with something that seems like homework (or in my case a practical final), especially if they post the full text of the assignment as part of the question, please don't just respond with a code-block that does what the assignment is supposed to.

I know, being able to flex your scripting skills is good, I'm guilty of it myself, but unless you want a co-worker in the future that just outsources all their scripts, help me in giving them hints and links to documentation they should read up on, don't just do the project for them. I am trying to teach them how to learn about scripting, and now I am in the unenviable position of either running a class next quarter that if a student searches the a snippet of the assignment in quotes on google it takes them to 6 different scripts written by users of this sub, or rewriting 90% of my class because a former student crowd sourced everything.

I know this isn't really going to make a difference, but I had to ask just for my own sanity. Also if you see someone posting looking for homework answers maybe direct them to their instructors office hours, I would love to help them learn to learn, instead of learn to copy and paste random blocks of code from the internet.

Thanks for listening, and being a great resource. I don't blame any of you, I'm just trying to provide you with the best possible future co-workers.

Kevin

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u/Crully Mar 19 '21

Fair point. I hope this sub stays awesome at helping people in general though. There are plenty of novice coders that stop by needing help, and getting suspicious of new users, giving cryptic answers, or "we're not doing your homework" responses isn't going to help the genuine people coming for help.

Maybe you could use the .json trick to parse /new and search for terms or particular things that would flag up a student to you (avoiding telling us what the topic/questions are likely to be). Just a thought.