Students will conduct themselves according to the University of Tennessee Hilltopics Honor Statement. The student code of conduct is at https://hilltopics.utk.edu/student-code-of-conduct.

Any student who exhibits inappropriate behavior may be admonished immediately and/or referred to student conduct. Continued inappropriate behavior may involve the University of Tennessee Police Department (UTPD).

Any student who is suspected of plagiarism and/or cheating will receive a penalty for doing so. The student will not be notified in advanced at the penalty or that they were suspected of violating the plagiarism and/or cheating policy. Instead, it is the student’s responsibility for contacting their professor. If this matter has been referred to Student Conduct, students will be contacted for an in-person meeting. In these cases, the professor will only respond with formal requests until a resolution is made by the Office of Student Conduct.

Plagiarism and cheating may result from a student copying an assignment or sections of an assignment from another student, from an online source, or from the student’s own previous assignment (from a previous attempt at the course).

Students are encouraged to work together, however this increases the risk of plagiarism and/or cheating. Students are cautioned to make sure that when they work together that their code cannot be seen by another student. We recommend that students work together by placing their laptops back to back. With this method, students may discuss topics, but the code they write is purely their own.

Students must always cite any professor, teaching assistant, or another student they worked with. Even if a student cannot see another student’s code, the chances of parallel thinking are increased. When a student cites with whom they worked, the graders can understand where one lab may look like another.

Citations do NOT preclude students from abiding by the plagiarism/cheating policy. Even if students cite their source, they may still not copy code in portions or entirety.

The professor(s) and teaching assistant(s) are not investigation units. Therefore, anyone found in violation of the plagiarism policy will receive the same penalty regardless of who originated the content.

Any plagiarism/cheating on an assignment worth more than or equal to 10% of a student's final grade will result in zero (0) credit for the course.

Otherwise, for any plagiarism/cheating on an assignment, students will receive zero (0) credit for the assignment and a ten (10) point drop on their final grade.

Penalties will appear as a Plagiarism column on Canvas. Essentially, it removes points from a student's final grade to achieve the point drop on the student’s final grade. This allows Canvas to calculate a more accurate grade for students.

Repeated violations of the plagiarism or cheating policy will result in zero (0) credit for the course.

If an allegation of theft is made, the theft will immediately be reported to student conduct for an investigation.

After a student has been flagged for potential plagiarism, all other works will be more closely scrutinized for plagiarism, past and present. Students will note that if they have not been caught for plagiarism, it doesn’t mean it’s not plagiarism. Therefore, if a previous work was plagiarized, the student or students responsible will be held to account for multiple violations of the plagiarism policy.

The professor(s) and teaching assistant(s) reserve the right to refer any student behavior to student conduct regardless of previous incidents, or lack thereof. More information about referrals and student conduct may be found at the Office of Student Conduct: http://studentconduct.utk.edu.

Students may view a copy of the student code of conduct at: Student Conduct Code of Conduct Handbook.

From SECTION 10.4 PLAGIARISM: Plagiarism is using the intellectual property or product of someone else without giving proper credit. The undocumented use of someone else’s words or ideas in any medium of communication (unless such information is recognized as common knowledge) is a serious offense, subject to disciplinary action that may include failure in a course and/or dismissal from the University. Specific examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to: (1) using without proper documentation (quotation marks and citation) written or spoken words, phrases, or sentences from any source; (2) summarizing without proper documentation (usually a citation) ideas from another source (unless such information is recognized as common knowledge); (3) borrowing facts, statistics, graphs, pictorial representations, or phrases without acknowledging the source (unless such information is recognized as common knowledge); (4) collaborating on a graded assignment without the instructor’s approval; and (5) submitting work, either in whole or partially created by a professional service or used without attribution (e.g., paper, speech, bibliography, or photograph).

From SECTION 10.5 EXAMPLES OF OTHER TYPES OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: Specific examples of other types of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to: (1) providing or receiving unauthorized information during an examination or academic assignment, or the possession and/or use of unauthorized materials during an examination or academic assignment; (2) providing or receiving unauthorized assistance in connection with laboratory work, field work, scholarship, or another academic assignment; (3) falsifying, fabricating, or misrepresenting data, laboratory results, research results, citations, or other information in connection with an academic assignment; (4) serving as, or enlisting the assistance of, a substitute for a student in the taking of an examination or the performance of an academic assignment; (5) altering grades, answers, or marks in an effort to change the earned grade or credit; (6) submitting without authorization the same assignment for credit in more than one course; (7) forging the signature of another or allowing forgery by another on any class or University-related document such as a class roll or drop/add sheet; (8) gaining an objectively unfair academic advantage by failing to observe the expressed procedures or instructions relating to an exam or academic assignment; and (9) engaging in an activity that unfairly places another student at a disadvantage, such as taking, hiding, or altering resource material, or manipulating a grading system