How to be aware of fraudulent assignments, copying, borrowing off the net, and so forth...
Careful design of the exercises is the key here. For simple exercises:
they should be done under supervision in the classroom.
they should be able to be checked automatically - Tcl itself provides mechanisms for automated testing of programs using the expect extension.
or able to be checked by other students - maybe via exchange of floppies or exchange over the local network etc. Here the guidelines for marking need to be specifically stated.
For complex exercises promote:
originality of solution
creative ideas
working in groups with carefully partitioned tasks
peer group assessment perhaps between schools.
Teachers may be able to apply some of these techniques to the non-programming projects included in this course.
Assessment can be done by a number of means. Techniques can be used which reinforce a collaborative process rather than a competitive, and consequently secretive, process. The computer infrastructure can help with this by providing mechanisms which support collaborative processes such as peer assessment.
Peer assessment , within the class, school or interschool - the web makes transmission of computer documents and procedures easy.
Assessing within a program testbed. This can be provided as part of the course materials or designed by the teacher or even the students. It can be included in the exercise as part of the specification, but must be done by a seperate group of students - perhaps a different class - otherwise the testbed tends to be self-confirming, rather than an objective assessment. Writing programs which test other programs is a useful project in its own right and the result can become part of the WEBSCOOL tools.
Teacher assessment - this may be possible in small classes, but teachers should give careful thought to designing exercises so that targets can be easily verified.
This is not intended to be a section on dealing with plagiarism, but essay assignments need to given topics which have a specific viewpoint so as to reduce the opportunity for plagiarism. Even choose a viewpoint which may not be the authors own viewpoint. A look at the google advertisements for the preceding section may open your eyes to what is already available on the web to aid the compulsive copyer. Indeed many of the advertisments on these pages are worth a good look as they are often placed by companies who are at the front of the pack in terms of providing new developments and services on the web.
