Beyond plagiarism: An active learning method to analyze causes behind code-similarity

Code-similarity is the actual indicator of plagiarism in the context of programming assignments. However, the experiences of practical software development have empirically confirmed the existences of other causes for code-similarity. Existing practices usually overemphasis the casual relationship between code-similarity and plagiarism, but ignore the importance to make students understand other causes that also contribute to code-similarity. This paper presents an active learning method to involve students and instructors collaboratively in finding causes of code-similarity occurred in programming assignments. The result shows that most causes occurred in programming assignments are positive. Students can learn the different causes of code-similarity with pros and cons during conducting the active learning method.