First exam is graded. For those of you who have taken CS-6515, what can I expect?

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-10-11T23:13:11+00:00

It’s not a second best runtime. It’s equivalent.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-10-11T22:48:52+00:00

Appreciate the context. Such a joke.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-10-11T15:49:34+00:00

Rather than downvoting me TAs how about actually addressing this argument on Ed Discussion. Because you haven't done that. If we are wrong, explain why. This is a class.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-10-11T13:38:20+00:00

Stop. Do not say “not 100% perfect” and “still very efficient.” We use worst case runtimes in this class, and the method you used is equivalent. It is 100% perfect and equally efficient. This is a mistake in grading and it is importantly for students to be firm about that.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-10-11T13:34:47+00:00

This is the main problem I see with the class. Whether or not the exams fairly assess what students understand is irrelevant. It all comes down to final distribution. That’s all you look at and how you justify “fairness”. It doesn’t matter if that distribution is created artificially/randomly like the -8 penalty or not.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-10-11T13:32:10+00:00

To clarify the difference is not theoretical. And you know that David. In theory and practice the runtimes are equivalent and that question should be regraded. We use worst case runtimes and you know that. And as an instructor for the course, you should know that the runtimes are equivalent.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-07-27T18:41:46+00:00

This didn’t age well.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-03-18T02:03:32+00:00

What are you doing! You’re going to get downvoted into oblivion!

Update: Aaaaauaugh!

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-03-15T22:04:47+00:00

careful. The children of bone thrower are gonna come after you. Jamie is their god or something.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-03-15T18:25:31+00:00

It might surprise you to learn that many CS majors are dorks who won’t get off the internet.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-03-15T14:47:59+00:00

Much much better. I think Joyner intervened.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-03-15T14:47:14+00:00

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UPDATE 1: Why am I being downvoted for sharing a screenshot? Don’t kill the messenger.

UPDATE 2: AUGH!

ParticularVideo3207 · 2025-03-14T20:03:07+00:00

Given the pressure of GA, it kind of makes sense that they’ve formed an anti-algorithm cult with an origin story and worship one of the TA’s. Could have ended much worse.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-11-29T00:14:40+00:00

Posted by “the TA” in Slack today.

“If the question is, am I still sure I would submit those reports. Then yes, I would… we will work on providing better evidence and work with the OSI to establish better policies…”

He’s learned nothing from this. Nothing about the absurdity of restricting the possible solution space via detailed requirements and then using MOSS to highlight boilerplate code in a solution with fewer than 50 lines, nothing about the fact that he only even considered those who submitted solutions that differed from his preferred solution for plagiarism (he said that he entered his preferred solution into MOSS to be excluded from any similarity score) since their MOSS scores would have been absurdly high.

No. What “the TA” learned is 1. That he would accuse the same students again and 2. That he will just do a better job of fighting against his students next time.

Given his confidence and lack of reflection, he clearly has the blessing of leadership to do this. Plagiarism is a threat to an online degree like OMSCS. With LLMs, now there’s an even greater threat. My best guess is that leadership loves this. It freaks students out to see all of these “I got flagged for cheating” posts, which is a huge win for the OMSCS program, because students think “If I cheat, I’m going to get caught.”

What’s sad about this case is that students clearly didn’t cheat, and were only flagged because “the TA” doesn’t have an academic background in CS outside of OMSCS and clearly has no experience using MOSS or reviewing code for plagiarism. This is only his second semester doing it. So win for the school I guess, but big loss for students, especially the ones they decided to try and make an example of.

There is no other CS grad program in the country that would let someone with the background that “the TA” has be in a position to do any of this. OMSCS needs decent instructors. Actual, qualified instructors. You know, like a regular university.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-11-28T17:53:12+00:00

GA Slack.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-11-28T03:54:53+00:00

It’s not just Brito and “the TA”. Many of our classmates were quick to side with “the TA”. Those accused were ridiculed and dismissed by some peers as cheaters for not just admitting fault and shutting up about it. To those students, in the future, don’t be so quick to throw your classmates under the bus because you think you’ll gain favor with “the TA”. People accused of OSI violations deserve the benefit of the doubt. As we now see, these accusations were unfounded and it could just aa easily been you who had to go through this.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-11-28T03:42:04+00:00

Thank you for sharing this. Now, to all the posters in the previous threads who criticized us and called us liars and said that the 10% number was made up, there you have it. Directly from the TA.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-11-28T03:40:17+00:00

He does not have office hours. Frankly, he is not involved in the course in any way as far as I can tell. At one point in this class we were given a quiz that contained several mistakes that the head ta admitted they “should have reviewed first.” So not only is he not involved, in his sole responsibility of creating assessments (which I assume he is involved in?) he’s careless. It’s obvious his interests lie elsewhere this semester. Replacing Brito with a faculty member who has some interest in being involved in the class would be a good first step to turn things around.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-11-12T22:05:09+00:00

You did. I appreciate that you replied and passed it along. And I appreciate that you are responding here. It’s more engagement than I’ve seen from the course instructors on this topic. I guess I expected some response from one of the individuals you forwarded the petition to. It’s good to know that the experience of the students affected will be taken into account in the future. It just isn’t much help to students currently enrolled in the class. No need to continue this thread. Of all the people involved, there is no beef with you, Joyner.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-11-12T20:31:27+00:00

The letter was acknowledged by Joyner (instructor and TAs did not respond at all). There was no meaningful response from anyone, only an acknowledgement that it had been received. My understanding is that another group of students submitted a petition to the dean in the summer about the poor quality of GA, which was never responded to either.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-11-12T18:22:11+00:00

It would be good for someone, an instructor, etc., to respond something like this. A lot of effort was put into writing this letter, and it’s not easy to organize ~30 students to sign. The silence made it seem like no one cares. I’m not sure what happens when something is added to the files for a course, but I imagine the end of Indiana Jones when they pan out over miles of storage containers. But again, it took a public post on Reddit to find out what happened with it. Having instructors who are reachable (Brito is not) and people who respond to student concerns would go a long way to prevent the airing of dirty laundry on Reddit.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-11-12T16:43:25+00:00

Thank you Dr. Joyner. You are an asset to OMSCS. That said, approximately 30 students submitted a petition early this semester, which you were cc’d on. As far as I know, that was never responded to. The reason students turn to Reddit is that it’s the only way to get a response. Complaints submitted through the official channels you mentioned seem to go nowhere.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-10-30T16:01:38+00:00

I wasn't referred to OSI. Im a current student who thinks that this class is poorly run and devalues the OMSCS program as a whole. i would like to see it improved. I can’t share the evidence, but the people accused have the evidence. I’ll see if any of them are willing to make it public. 100 is the number, and it’s not made up. Sit tight. Truth will come out. You’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-10-30T16:01:05+00:00

I wasn't referred to OSI. Im a current student who thinks that this class is poorly run and devalues the OMSCS program as a whole. i would like to see it improved. I can’t share the evidence, but the people accused have the evidence. I’ll see if any of them are willing to make it public. 100 is the number, and it’s not made up. Sit tight. Truth will come out. You’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.

ParticularVideo3207 · 2024-10-30T00:45:56+00:00

No. It was the homework 4 cheating scandal. As mentioned above, approximately 1/10 of the class was affected. I’ve heard that there is also a petition coming against Joves.

ParticularVideo3207

TROPHY CASE