Code After Class

in Policies
Basic Info
  1. You may show your assignments publicly (e.g., on your web personal web page or portfolio), but please take care to deter future students from using it illegally.
This was updated in April 2021. While we are still allowing students to post their code after class, we are asking for more help to prevent future students from misusing your work. You worked hard to make those things you are proud of. We don't want others to claim credit for it.

Over the course of the semester, you will make (or have made) cool stuff. You may want to show it to the world. These assignments can be useful as part of a portfolio, as things to show to prospective emploters, or just to impress your friends. They are one of the few things that you do in a class that is fun to show to other people. You should (rightfully) be proud of what you’ve done.

And, because they are JavaScript, it is easy to share them with people via your personal web site.

However, because it is JavaScript, anyone and everyone can see the source code. Which means a student next year will have access to it. And we will give similar assignments next year. This is a conundrum.

I will not restrict you from posting your work on the open web – even though it contains a substantial amount of my work (both code and assignment design). However, I do ask your assistance in trying to make it harder for future students to use your work for their assignments.

There is a fine line between students who refer to other assignments for ideas. Looking at an assignment to see an inspiring design is OK. Even glancing at the code to see how someone solved the problem can be an acceptable way to get unstuck. But some students do wholesale copying.

To help prevent misuse in the future:

  1. Please do not post the workbook pages to the web. In general, it’s OK to post things in the for_students directory, but not the docs directory. You may use my code that appears in the libs directory providing you give it proper attribution.

  2. Please let us know that the code is available - that way we can use it to check to see if future students are referring to it illegally.

  3. Please do not advertise them as workbook solutions, but give proper attribution to the class and framework code. So, please say something like “This project was created for the Computer Graphics class at the University of Wisconsin in Spring of 2021 and uses the class software framework” rather than “This is a solution to Workbook 7 for CS559”.

  4. Please label it clearly that “this code should not be copied for other student assignments” (or something like that). It is useful if this is in the comments in each file, but it should be at least on the web page. It turns out that this is useful as students will say “but I thought it was an example on the web that I could use.”

  5. Please only post the “cool parts” of the assignment - not the little exercises where most people do very similar things.

  6. Obfuscating your code would be the best thing. There are online obfuscators that are easy to use.However, this is extra work, and you might want your code to be visible (for example, to show to future employers). If you’re willing to do this, thank you. But this is a big ask.

Future students will find your code if it is on the open web, I would appreciate it a little harder for them to use it directly.

Having old assignments available is actually good for the class – it is good advertising, and can inspire people. But please help me discourage people from just copying your hard work as their own.

We do make changes to the workbooks that discourage copying old assignments, and use code checking tools to identify students who copy things.

Note: We may delete the GitHub repositories after class is over, so please keep a copy of your work if you want it.