Plagiarism in programming assignments

TLDR

Programming courses are typically assessed through assignments, but the ease of copying code and large class sizes make plagiarism difficult to detect. The authors aim to address these concerns by developing a tool for online assignment submission and plagiarism detection. They describe the software’s design, including customization options for different teaching requirements. The resulting package enables online submission and provides software to identify potential plagiarism cases.

Abstract

The assessment of programming courses is usually carried out by means of programming assignments. Since it is simple to copy and edit computer programs, however, there will always be a temptation among some students following such courses to copy and modify the work of others. As the number of students in these courses is often high, it can be very difficult to detect this plagiarism. The authors have developed a package which will allow programming assignments to be submitted online, and which includes software to assist in detecting possible instances of plagiarism. In this paper, they discuss the concerns that motivated this work, describe the developed software, tailoring the software to different requirements and finally consider its implications for large group teaching.