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FWIW. In my undergrad days, long ago now, cheating was rampant throughout the (overwhelmingly white and male) CS student body. One professor, whom I admired,

FWIW. In my undergrad days, long ago now, cheating was rampant throughout the (overwhelmingly white and male) CS student body. One professor, whom I admired, got fed up with this. He handed back a particular assignment to his class, ungraded, with the code of conduct stapled to each student's submission. He then pointedly told the class that if anyone needed to come and tell him anything after class, he would be in his office. This move was the talk of the dorms for weeks. But nothing really came of it. This stern warning no doubt caused some fear and anguish among those affected, but that was the extent of it. Nobody got expelled, flunked the course, or had their record damaged in any way. This is just an anecdote. I certainly don't have any data on the prevalence of cheating, or on differences in attitudes toward cheating, among Chinese versus other students. But I'd be surprised if there is a measurable difference. In my experience, everyone is completely shameless and nobody faces any real consequences even when they are caught red-handed.

ntsplnkv2 8y ago
If it's an assignment many people will copy this has always happened and will always be true for probably every human being anywhere. That's why exams exist. Make them hard. People who do the homework will succeed. Others won't. We're too afraid of making people fail.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
  And yet exams can be (are?) a poor way to test knowledge. I’m ideologically against exams. For many they are stressful, and they don’t represent any real life scenario as you will always have access to reference material on the job.
  - ntsplnkv2 8y ago
    > For many they are stressful, and they don’t represent any real life scenario as you will always have access to reference material on the job. Good. They should be stressful. I don't want people who can't handle stress being doctors or engineers. Out in the field they will have to make decisions that will not just be "look it up in the reference manual." And it's not like you can't have reference materials on exams. All of my engineering exams were open reference. It didn't matter.

ntsplnkv2 8y ago

If it's an assignment many people will copy this has always happened and will always be true for probably every human being anywhere. That's why exams exist. Make them hard. People who do the homework will succeed. Others won't. We're too afraid of making people fail.

TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
And yet exams can be (are?) a poor way to test knowledge. I’m ideologically against exams. For many they are stressful, and they don’t represent any real life scenario as you will always have access to reference material on the job.
- ntsplnkv2 8y ago
  > For many they are stressful, and they don’t represent any real life scenario as you will always have access to reference material on the job. Good. They should be stressful. I don't want people who can't handle stress being doctors or engineers. Out in the field they will have to make decisions that will not just be "look it up in the reference manual." And it's not like you can't have reference materials on exams. All of my engineering exams were open reference. It didn't matter.