Giving Help

Providing help to peers in a way that fosters learning and collaboration while maintaining academic integrity is crucial. Here are some guidelines that a computer science university student can follow:

  1. Understand University Policies: Familiarize yourself with Kibo's Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy. This policy is designed to protect the value of your degree, which is ultimately determined by the ability of our graduates to apply their knowledge and skills to develop high quality solutions to challenging problems--not their grades!

  2. Encourage Independent Learning: Rather than giving direct answers, guide your peers to resources, references, or methodologies that can help them solve the problem on their own. Encourage them to understand the concepts rather than just finding the correct solution. Work through examples that are different from the assignments or practice problems provide in the course to demonstrate the concepts.

  3. Collaborate, Don't Complete: Collaborate on ideas and concepts, but avoid completing assignments or projects for others. Provide suggestions, share insights, and discuss approaches without doing the work for them or showing your work to them.

  4. Set Boundaries: Make it clear that you're willing to help with understanding concepts and problem-solving, but you won't assist in any activity that violates academic integrity policies.

  5. Use Group Study Sessions: Participate in group study sessions where everyone can contribute and learn together. This way, ideas are shared, but each individual is responsible for their own understanding and work.

  6. Be Mindful of Collaboration Tools: If using collaboration tools like version control systems or shared documents, make sure that contributions are clear and well-documented. Clearly delineate individual contributions to avoid confusion.

  7. Refer to Resources: Direct your peers to relevant textbooks, online resources, or documentation. Learning to find and use resources is an essential skill, and guiding them toward these materials can be immensely helpful both in the moment and your career.

  8. Ask Probing Questions: Instead of providing direct answers, ask questions that guide your peers to think critically about the problem. This helps them develop problem-solving skills.

  9. Be Transparent: If you're unsure about the appropriateness of your assistance, it's better to seek guidance from professors or teaching assistants. Be transparent about the level of help you're providing.

  10. Promote Honesty: Encourage your peers to take pride in their work and to be honest about the level of help they received. Acknowledging assistance is a key aspect of academic integrity.

Remember, the goal is to create an environment where students can learn from each other (after, we are better together) while we develop our individual skills and understanding of the subject matter.