Negotiating the Maze of Academic Integrity in Computing Education

Abstract

Academic integrity in computing education is a source of much confusion and disagreement. Studies of student and academic approaches to academic integrity in computing indicate considerable variation in practice along with confusion as to what practices are acceptable. The difficulty appears to arise in part from perceived differences between academic practice in computing education and professional practice in the computing industry, which lead to challenges in devising a consistent and meaningful approach to academic integrity. Coding practices in industry rely heavily on teamwork and use of external resources, but when computing educators seek to model industry practice in the classroom these techniques tend to conflict with standard academic integrity policies, which focus on assessing individual achievement.