Plagiarism in computer science courses

Plagiarism of computer programs has long been a problem in higher education. Ease of electronic copying, vague understanding by students as to what constitutes plagiarism, increasing acceptance of plagiarism by students, lack of enforcement by instructors and school adminstrators, and a whole host of other factors contribute to plagiarism. The first step in curbing plagiarism is prevention, the second (and much less preferable) is detection. History files and software metrics can be used as a tool to aid in detecting possible plagiarism. This paper gives advice concerning how to deal with plagiarism and with using software monitors to detect plagiarism.