Thanks for this discussion – lots of really great ideas.
Project Guidance is a subcategory – homework posts could appear in Processing, Processing.py, p5.js, Android, etc., and we probably don’t want to pool them all together or create a Homework subcategory for every single one.
Most students do not read the FAQ or browse top-level links/tabs. They arrive to a post via a Google search, use the search bar and browse past answers, then create a new post directly.
I like the idea of adding things to the FAQ. I could also imagine us adding something to new
For example, top level FAQ entries (these is an outline / sketch, not the proposed final language):
Is it homework?
Explains basic policies:
- homework questions should be identified as homework
- no asking for or offering complete solutions if this is against the assignment.
- posts that receive help will not be taken down, and answers belong to the community – no deleting / hiding help as a form of cheating
- if you want general advice without code, please say so explicitly
- Guidelines—Tips on Asking Questions
Can you share it?
- Do you have the right to post this code, or does it belong to your company / team? Posts that receive help will not be taken down, and answers belong to the community – so if you don’t want the code to be public, don’t make it public.
We could add new post template text that contains a warning. That could be something as simple as:
<!-- For homework questions, please see site FAQ -->
I’m not sure if a comprehensive attempt at pedagogy (e.g. thinking about algorithms, paper prototyping, etc.) belongs on the forum menu. We can make posts with guides of all kinds, but I think the top level should focus on policies and point towards existing resources (of which there are many). If there are Guidelines on how to do Processing homework, we could link them from the FAQ – I love the idea of such a guide.
At the same time I don’t want to assume that our ideas about pedagogy are true for every student. Some teachers / classes may disagree with us and we don’t want to presume or present information in an authoritative way that will confuse their students.