3 ms·
I agree with you for the most part, but nearly all introductory courses must have content that is easily available online. Consider teaching students how to wri
by Xk 16y ago
I agree with you for the most part, but nearly all introductory courses must have content that is easily available online. Consider teaching students how to write a recursive method. What would their first assignment be?
List length? "find length of list"
Factorial? "factorial recursive"
Fibonacci? "fibonacci recursive"
GCD? "program gcd"
There are only so many simple recursive procedures, and I guarantee nearly all of them are online.
That said, I do think that once students have a basic understanding of computer science all assignments should be given so that the answer are not online. And this wouldn't bee to hard, even. It would just take some effort by the professor.
- wwortiz 16y agoOkay sure those are simple examples that are probably available in large quantities online, but why should that homework assignment count towards a grade is more of my point. Professors can assign homework that isn't graded and the ones who actually do the assignment will be the ones that learn.
- Xk 16y agoAgreed, but that all but eliminates graded homework for the first several years of college (not that that's a bad thing, just that I don't think colleges would approve).
- totalc 16y agoGraded homeworks might be used as checkpoints verifying that students are learning key concepts, prior to the exams that are a larger component of the grade. Without these graded checkpoints, lazy students given only voluntary homeworks might reach the exam with little preparation (lazy student speaking from personal experience. being graded on the homework 'encouraged' learning the concepts!)
- dagw 16y agolazy students given only voluntary homeworks might reach the exam with little preparation And that is bad, why exactly? You're unprepared, you fail, you learn a lesson, you retake. Repeat until done. I too was a lazy student and found that failing a few classes and having to resit the exam was a fine way to motivate you to study.
- btilly 16y agoIt is trivial to create a simple recursive problem without saying anything that would be a Google-able search term. The problem may be solved, but the students won't know what to search for. For example have them write a program that solves the game of Nim, but don't tell them the name of the game they are solving. Instead call it "pick up pennies" or something like that. Now Google won't help.
- Xk 16y agoVery true. However, there will be someone in the class who knows that "pick up pennies" is just the game of Nim, and will google it. Renaming makes it harder so fewer people will be able to cheat, but it doesn't make it impossible. (That said, it wouldn't be all that hard for the professor to create his own game which is similar to Nim in some respects, but different in others -- I believe this would be the best solution -- but unfortunately most professors would not put the time in to do this.) This problem multiplies tenfold when you try to do it with math. (Integrate _____ -> WolframAlpha. Prove ______ -> Google.)
- Steuard 16y agoThere's a big gap between "not all that hard" and "something you have time to create from scratch for every problem on every exam in all of your classes every term". In general, creating good, well-balanced problems isn't easy! And many of the "classic" examples are classic precisely because they incorporate just the right blend of concepts in an unusually simple package. That's not easy to duplicate, if it's possible at all. (I do my best to write exam problems that way, but it can be a tortuous process.)