Corona: code autonomous reference assistance

Code plagiarism – taking code from external sources and using it in one’s own programs – can be a serious issue for programming students, depending on the policies being applied by their instructors. However, plagiarism can be inadvertent, due to a lack of knowledge among students. Our research shows varied understandings of correct code reuse, suggesting that students are not provided with appropriate guidelines. Our goal is to help prevent code plagiarism by introducing good code referencing practice to students. We present Corona, a code referencing system that can assist students in creating references for their code while simultaneously educating them about ethical code reuse. Technical evaluation of the system shows that Corona can successfully generate references for code taken from 20 of 24 distinct programming assistance websites, and that it can find matches between students’ code and instructors’ example code and generate appropriate references. In addition, we propose a course component that will further elevate students’ participation in code referencing in a way that would be beneficial in a learning environment, regardless of class size.