Working with others on assignments is a good way to learn the material and we encourage it. However, there are limits to the degree of cooperation that we will permit.

When working on programming assignments, you must work only with others whose understanding of the material is approximately equal to yours. In this situation, working together to find a good approach for solving a programming problem is cooperation; listening while someone dictates a solution is cheating. You must limit collaboration to a high-level discussion of solution strategies, and stop short of actually writing down a group answer. Anything that you hand in, whether it is a written problem or a computer program, must be entirely your own work. If you base your solution on any other written solution, you are cheating.

When taking a test, you must work completely independently of everyone else. Any collaboration here, of course, is cheating.

We do not distinguish between cheaters who copy other's work and cheaters who allow their work to be copied.

If you cheat, you will receive the harest penalty possible under the rules of Northwestern. If you have any questions about what constitutes cheating, please ask.