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[1]

Random stuff seems like a good place to post this-
Please help! I'm relatively new to Dominion but I want to get better than my friends so I came here. Sadly, this is also a first my first time on a forum, so navigation has proved to be quite the challenge.

Is there anywhere I can go to get my bearings?

Welcome! 
Don't worry, somebody will direct you to the Forum games shortly.

Just to be clear, this is an inside joke on this forum. This forum has many inside jokes. The joke here is that new people get frequently suggested to check out the forum games, found here, and so Accatitippi is joking about this inevitably happening because you are new here. Another inside joke on this forum is the idea that explaining jokes makes them funnier, and that pointing this out also makes them funnier. I have now explained this joke to you, so it is now funnier, as per the previous sentence.

If you explain the inside jokes to everyone, how are they inside jokes?

[Lekkit]

They are only jokes here. Kind of.

[Burning Skull]

If you explain the inside jokes to everyone, how are they inside jokes?

What's wrong with explaining the jokes to every 1? There are not so many of them.

[A Drowned Kernel]

If you explain the inside jokes to everyone, how are they inside jokes?

They're inside jokes, it's just very easy to get inside.

[Tables]

Random stuff seems like a good place to post this-
Please help! I'm relatively new to Dominion but I want to get better than my friends so I came here. Sadly, this is also a first my first time on a forum, so navigation has proved to be quite the challenge.

Is there anywhere I can go to get my bearings?

Welcome! 
Don't worry, somebody will direct you to the Forum games shortly.

Just to be clear, this is an inside joke on this forum. This forum has many inside jokes. The joke here is that new people get frequently suggested to check out the forum games, found here, and so Accatitippi is joking about this inevitably happening because you are new here. Another inside joke on this forum is the idea that explaining jokes makes them funnier, and that pointing this out also makes them funnier. I have now explained this joke to you, so it is now funnier, as per the previous sentence.

If you explain the inside jokes to everyone, how are they inside jokes?

Well, a better word would probably have been meme, but inside joke works as well.

[2.71828.....]

If you explain the inside jokes to everyone, how are they inside jokes?

Except....that is the joke. The explanation, that is.

[Polk5440]

So. I'm basically being accused of plagiarism in my programming class right now. Another student and I had contacted the department chair with some concerns about how our professor was teaching the class. I won't go into the specifics, but we were informed that there were at least several other groups that shared similar concerns. And...now my grading rubric for an assignment says that my solution was "identical" to another student's, so I lose 25%.

Needless to say I'm pretty stressed about this.

Is there a superior body you can appeal to to evaluate your case? Many universities here have specific anti-plagiarism boards that make the decision about what is plagiarism and what isn't, and about what to do about each case.

Kirian's advice is spot on.

I want to double up on Accatitippi's point here. It's critically important to talk to the relevant anti-plagiarism board (if it exists) or a dean of students responsible for handling plagiarism/honor code violations ASAP, especially if you suspect the professor is "punishing" you for complaining to the department head about him/the class. The board/dean is there to protect students.

Two anecdotes for you:

1) At my college, an Integrity Board was established partly because of confusion among faculty about plagiarism/cheating and as a protection for students. Many professors were against creating an Integrity Board because they wanted to retain full control and authority over their classes. This included the ability to fail students or ignore indiscretions at will. The most ridiculous case came about with a physics professor who failed his ENTIRE lab because of plagiarism. What had happened was that he said students could work together, so lab groups collected data together and wrote joint papers together. The TA approved of this because that was the TA's interpretation of the professor's instructions, as well. What the professor actually meant was that people could help each other set up the experiment and share equipment. He was expecting different data from each individual (everyone takes individual measurements) and different reports. This was clearly a case of the professor not clearly communicating expectations. Literally everyone involved interpreted the instructions in the same (evidently incorrect) way and the professor refused to admit a failure of communication. A dean of students had to step in and clear things up. Shortly after, the Integrity Board was approved for the college.

2) Also at my college, for the intro programming class, the professor set strict standards on what level of working together was allowed. He used third party software to evaluate student code to detect whether people were collaborating on coding details rather than high level problem solving. If your professor is the same, you could run into problems if, for instance, your code is identical to your groups' code (with minor exceptions like variable names), different from all other students' code, and your professors' expectations were clear.

[liopoil]

In my high school physics class, copying is rampant. The teacher knows too, or at least is pretty sure, but feels that he cannot do anything about it. It's really quite sad. He feels that administration might not back him up and that the students would protest (he is right about the latter, not sure on the former). It has really made it hard for me to take the class seriously now.

Ichi's story and ones like it from the teachers' perspective aren't pretty either

[eHalcyon]

In my high school physics class, copying is rampant. The teacher knows too, or at least is pretty sure, but feels that he cannot do anything about it. It's really quite sad. He feels that administration might not back him up and that the students would protest (he is right about the latter, not sure on the former). It has really made it hard for me to take the class seriously now.

Ichi's story and ones like it from the teachers' perspective aren't pretty either

In what way could the students legitimately protest?  Why doesn't he think the admin would back him?

[liopoil]

In my high school physics class, copying is rampant. The teacher knows too, or at least is pretty sure, but feels that he cannot do anything about it. It's really quite sad. He feels that administration might not back him up and that the students would protest (he is right about the latter, not sure on the former). It has really made it hard for me to take the class seriously now.

Ichi's story and ones like it from the teachers' perspective aren't pretty either

In what way could the students legitimately protest?  Why doesn't he think the admin would back him?

Honestly I'm not sure. He doesn't have much rock solid proof, but really I think it isn't too hard to figure out that the lab reports all look a bit similar, he just doesn't look at them that closely. The legitimacy of the protest doesn't matter that much honestly. They'll just hound whoever they need to until they get their grade. That's how high school works. The weird part is even though they are all seniors and by now have been accepted to colleges they still care about their grades for some reason.

Administration doesn't like dealing with potential angry parents and they also don't like failing students. If grades are a bit inflated who cares really.

I guess I should say that I go to one of those 'college prep' schools.

[Kirian]

Administration doesn't like dealing with potential angry parents and they also don't like failing students. If grades are a bit inflated who cares really.

I once lost a teaching job mid-year because I refused to inflate my grades.

[2.71828.....]

Administration doesn't like dealing with potential angry parents and they also don't like failing students. If grades are a bit inflated who cares really.

I once lost a teaching job mid-year because I refused to inflate my grades.

+1 for being awesome, not because you lost the job

[liopoil]

Administration doesn't like dealing with potential angry parents and they also don't like failing students. If grades are a bit inflated who cares really.

I once lost a teaching job mid-year because I refused to inflate my grades.

A less extreme version of this may be what he is afraid of. How much grades are inflated varies wildly from class to class for me though, so it does seem like there is some freedom given to teachers on how they grade.

[Ichimaru Gin]

Hey everyone! I really appreciate all the advice.

And I have an interesting update!

I received an email back from the department chair. She said that I should address the situation directly with my professor first, and if I still had concerns to talk to her then. She also made it very clear to me that the professor is not aware of which individuals (or even in which sections) made complaints about him.

So I went to my professor's office hour today and...

I learned that when he said identical, he meant identical. I actually think he's on my side in this one, but basically some other student in the class somehow got a hold of my code and submitted it without any changes whatsoever. I find that kind of ludicrous, but that's the only thing that I could conclude given that he said they were identical, even including the comments.

So, tomorrow after class I will be meeting with my instructor and this other student to talk about this. I am positive that I was the first one to contact my professor, and in person as well. We talked about different possibilities that someone might have had an opportunity to steal my code, but I really couldn't think of anything. I never leave my computer or flashdrive unattended, and I do most of my coding at home.

Worst comes to worst, I also have maybe 3-4 "prototype" files on my flashdrive and computer which I have been very careful not to open given that they are dated well before the assignment's due date and could possibly be used as proof.

[Watno]

I know someone who had people literally photocopy his solution to something and hand it in, including his name on them.

[Axxle]

I know someone who had people literally photocopy his solution to something and hand it in, including his name on them.

That happened in my IB calc class senior year, they even used the school library to do it.

[jsh357]

Dealing with these types of students is one of the things I'm least looking forward to... what a lousy situation for everyone involved.

[Seprix]

Teaching sounds like lots of fun sometimes as a job, something I'd like to do.. And then I hear about all this stuff. Eh...

[Axxle]

Ive always thought about tutoring. probably most of the good things about teaching without as much of the bad

[scott_pilgrim]

Hey everyone! I really appreciate all the advice.

And I have an interesting update!

I received an email back from the department chair. She said that I should address the situation directly with my professor first, and if I still had concerns to talk to her then. She also made it very clear to me that the professor is not aware of which individuals (or even in which sections) made complaints about him.

So I went to my professor's office hour today and...

I learned that when he said identical, he meant identical. I actually think he's on my side in this one, but basically some other student in the class somehow got a hold of my code and submitted it without any changes whatsoever. I find that kind of ludicrous, but that's the only thing that I could conclude given that he said they were identical, even including the comments.

So, tomorrow after class I will be meeting with my instructor and this other student to talk about this. I am positive that I was the first one to contact my professor, and in person as well. We talked about different possibilities that someone might have had an opportunity to steal my code, but I really couldn't think of anything. I never leave my computer or flashdrive unattended, and I do most of my coding at home.

Worst comes to worst, I also have maybe 3-4 "prototype" files on my flashdrive and computer which I have been very careful not to open given that they are dated well before the assignment's due date and could possibly be used as proof.

Has the other student confirmed that it was his submission yet?  He may see it and say "no that's not what I submitted", like there was just some weird bug that copied your submission onto his name or something.  Otherwise it's a counterclaim situation, if you get lynched today then he'll be confirmed scum tomorrow.

[Ichimaru Gin]

Haha. I actually did think a lot about Mafia when I was explaining myself to my professor. I think it's prepared me very well for arguing my innocence.

[Ichimaru Gin]

And of course I'm town...

[Seprix]

And of course I'm town...

No, you're Ichimaru Gin.

*ba-dum chhhhhhhhh*

[Ichimaru Gin]

And of course I'm town...

No, you're Ichimaru Gin.

*ba-dum chhhhhhhhh*

Don't ever leave me again 

[silverspawn]

I also got in trouble because someone in my group copied an answer. I'll have to do one more subject because of it next semester. Pretty frustrating.