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The University of Massachusetts Amherst

CICS Academic Honesty

Scenario 1

Louis had three problem sets and two quizzes due this week. He was away from campus for several days for a track meet and then got sick. He’s already taken two days off to rest and has made almost no progress on the problem set. Salina feels sorry for Louis and wants to help, so she sits down with Louis and talks with him about how to do the problem set while Louis is working on it. Salina already handed in her own solution, but she opens her laptop and reads her own code while she’s helping Louis. Salina has by now spent a couple hours with Louis, and Louis still needs help, but Salina really needs to get back to her own work. She puts her code in a dropbox and shares it with Louis, after Louis promises only to look at it when he really has to.

Adapted from: https://integrity.mit.edu/handbook/writing-code

Guiding Questions

1. What are the ethical dimensions of this situation? 

2. Do you agree with Salina's approach to helping Louis?

4. How would you handle a situation like this if you were Salina? Louis?