The spirit of this policy is that actions which shortcut the learning process are forbidden while actions that promote learning are encouraged. Studying lecture material together with other students, for example, provides an additional avenue for learning and is encouraged. But using a solution that you did not develop yourself is prohibited because it avoids the learning process entirely. It is your responsibility to know what is permissible and what is not. If you have any questions or doubts, please contact your instructor.
Academic honesty is required in all your work. Under no circumstances may you hand in work done with or by someone else under your own name. Discussing ideas and approaches to problems with others on a general level is encouraged, but you should never share your solutions with anyone else nor allow others to share solutions with you. You may not examine solutions belonging to someone else, nor may you let anyone look at or make a copy of your solutions. This includes, but is not limited to, obtaining solutions from students who previously took the course, solutions that can be found online, or solutions produced by generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT or Copilot).
All code you submit must be your own with the following permissible exceptions: code distributed in class, code found in the course text book, and code worked on with an assigned partner. In these cases, you should always include detailed comments that indicates on which parts of the assignment you received help, and what your sources were.
Failure to abide by these rules constitutes academic dishonesty and will lead to a hearing of the College Judiciary Committee. According to the Faculty Handbook: "Because plagiarism is considered to be so serious a transgression, it is the opinion of the faculty that for the first offense, failure in the course and, as appropriate, suspension for a semester or deprivation of the degree in that year is suitable; for a second offense, the penalty should normally be expulsion."
This policy applies to all course work, including code, homework solutions (e.g., proofs, analysis, written reports), and exams. Please contact the instructor if you have any questions about what is permissible in this course.
Students must strictly adhere to the following policy, which applies to all exams taken in a Computer Science course at Swarthmore.
Exam takers must place all non-essential items at the front of the room (or other designated area). Unless otherwise permitted, students may not have any electronic devices or course materials in their possession during the entirety of the exam. This includes cell phones, tablets, laptops, smart watches, course notes, articles and books, among others. These items should be placed at the front of the room near the proctor. If you need to leave the room during the exam, you must obtain permission from an instructor first. Any non-permitted discussion or aide in regards to exam material will result in immediate forfeiture of the exam and a report to the College Judiciary Committee. Please discuss any concerns or accommodations with your instructor prior to starting the exam.
Lab assignments are submitted electronically using git, and are typically due by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday nights. You may submit your assignment multiple times, but only the final submission will be graded.
The first few labs will be individual assignments to ensure that everyone knows the basics of C++ and the course material. Later, we will transition to partnered lab assignments to allow you to work on larger projects and to gain important experience working in a team to build software.
Late Policy: Lab assignments will typically be assigned Thursday morning before lab and will be due Wednesday at 11:59PM. You are strongly encouraged to start early and to attend the ninja sessions for extra practice. You must submit your assignments electronically by pushing to your assigned git repository. You may push your assignment multiple times, and a history of previous submissions will be saved. You are encouraged to push your work regularly.
To help with cases of minor illnesses, athletic conflicts, or other short-term time limitations, all students start the course with two late assignment days to be used at your discretion, with no questions asked. To use your extra time, you must email your professor after you have completed the lab and pushed to your repository. You do not need to inform anyone ahead of time. When you use late time, you should still expect to work on the newly-released lab during the following lab section meeting. The professor and ninjas will always prioritize answering questions related to the current lab assignment.
Your late days will be counted at the granularity of full days and will be tracked on a per-student (NOT per-partnership) basis. That is, if you turn in an assignment five minutes after the deadline, it counts as using one day. For partnered labs, using a late day counts towards the late days for each partner. In the rare cases in which only one partner has unused late days, that partner's late days may be used, barring a consistent pattern of abuse.
If you feel that you need an extension on an assignment or that you are unable to attend class for two or more meetings due to a medical condition (e.g., extended illness, concussion, hospitalization) or other emergency, you must contact the dean's office and your instructors. Faculty will coordinate with the deans to determine and provide the appropriate accommodations. Note that for illnesses, the College's medical excuse policy, states that you must be seen and diagnosed by the Worth Health Center if you would like them to contact your class dean with corroborating medical information.
If you believe you need accommodations for a disability or a chronic medical condition, please visit the Student Disability Services website for details about the accommodations process. Since accommodations require early planning and are not retroactive, contact Student Disability Services as soon as possible. You are also welcome to contact your instructor privately to discuss your academic needs. However, all disability-related accommodations must be arranged, in advance, through Student Disability Services.