He got caught! But in listening to the story we either respond, “Oh! That’s dreadful!” or “Woe, that’s resourceful!” I talk about this in my video games presentation, that we really need more than one word for cheating, that some of the cheating that gammers engage in is actually quite resourceful, figuring out how to accomplish the goals by changing the rules.
We don’t do this in real life?
Anyway, this brings me to something I read this morning in Slashdot, a quote from an anonymous reader…
“Students studying computing in the UK and US are outsourcing their university coursework to graduates in India and Romania. Work is being contracted out for as little as ?5 on contract coding websites usually used by businesses. Students are outsourcing everything from simple coursework to full blown final year dissertations. It’s causing a major headache for lecturers who say it is almost impossible to detect.”
Clearly, this is cheating, taking credit for someone elses work. I’m wondering though, Where is the line? At what point do we forgive, or even encourage resourceful and inventive shortcutting, and at what point does it become … well, cheating?
Interstingly, if those students graduate and get their jobs, much of their work will be outsourced to India or Romania.
