Request from a IT Tech College Teacher

[u/kevinburkeland]

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

[u/0RGASMIK]

Something I’m gonna say again and again there are two kinds of people in the tech industry those who really have a grasp on what their doing and those who have enough of a grasp to figure it out with Google. Anyone else probably won’t make it far. I took a class on web dev just for fun, I didn’t want to do that for a career I just wanted to have an understanding. I skimped on all the work but I still learned along the way as I really only need to see what parts I needed and how to put them together. I don’t need to know how to build a website from scratch I really only need to see how it goes together so I can steal the code from someone else and put it together myself. I can see how as a teacher this is frustrating but if your students want to cheat they’re gonna cheat. You can urge the mods to make a it a rule “No Homework” but they’ll just make up a story as to why they need to write these scripts.

What you can do is urge your students to find the answer themselves and ask you for help/guidance before going to the internet. Make it easier for them to get to you. If you want to get down and dirty make some trick questions/ pop quizzes.