Academic Dishonesty and Collaboration Policy
Academic Dishonesty
Academic Dishonesty will not be tolerated in any form. I will strongly adhere to the UCSB Academic Dishonesty Policy, should the need arise. Instances of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to the following list.
Copying solutions from other students during homework or during exams. Please see the collaboration policy below for situations when collaboration is allowed.
Solutions from previous years: It is forbidden to look at or copy solutions for homework from previous years. There are certain questions that are asked from year to year because they are good questions: doing these questions yourself will assist in your understanding of the course material and will be crucial in your in-class tests.
Collaboration Policy
You are encouraged to work with other students on your assignments, and to help other students complete their assignments, provided that you comply with the following conditions.
Honest representation: The material you turn in for course credit must be a fair representation of your work. You are responsible for understanding and being able to explain and duplicate the work you submit.
Active involvement: You must ensure that you are an active participant in all collaborations, and are not merely dividing up the work or following along while another student does the work. For example, copying another student's work without actively being involved in deriving the solution is strictly prohibited.
Work individually or in small groups: Working in groups of more than four people is discouraged because it limits the amount of participation by each member of the group.
Give help appropriately: When helping someone, it is important not to simply give them a solution, because then they may not understand it fully and will not be able to solve a similar problem next time. It's always important to take the time to help someone think through the problem and develop the solution. Often, this can be accomplished by asking them a series of leading questions. Remember the old saying: Give someone a fish and they'll eat for a day. Teach someone to fish and they'll eat for a lifetime.
If in doubt, ask your instructor: Be sure to ask in advance if you have any doubts about whether a certain type of collaboration is acceptable.
Francesco Bullo, bullo at ucsb.edu