Code of Conduct

There are two axes to the code of conduct for Pupilfirst School. First, we require all students to abide by the principles of academic integrity documented here. Second, all members must act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.

Academic standards for students

Examples of actions that are conducive to learning include:

  • Following instructions that are given in the assignments in the course, working on your own to try to solve the problems that are presented.
  • Asking for help from coaches and peers in the community or the Discord server when you’re facing some difficulty with the course.
  • Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback.
  • Utilizing AI tools responsibly to assist in problem-solving and coding, ensuring you fully understand and can explain any AI-generated content you incorporate.
  • Giving hints (but not complete solutions) to peers who ask for help in such a way that they can proceed with their work.

Examples of actions that detract from a functional learning experience include:

  • Submitting AI-generated code or content that you do not understand or cannot explain.
  • Over-reliance on AI tools to complete assignments without engaging with the learning material.
  • Working on individual assignments as a group and then submitting identical or near-identical submissions.
  • Checking solved submissions from other students instead of developing your solution from scratch.
  • Stealing or passing off someone else’s work as your own.
  • Using someone else’s work without giving credit.
  • Making modifications to someone else’s work and trying to pass it off as your original work.
  • Giving complete solutions or answers to assignments to another student.
  • Using exploits or other methods to manipulate your grades.

Enforcement Responsibilities

Student submissions may be reviewed to assess the student’s understanding of the work submitted, especially when AI tools are used. Students should be prepared to explain and discuss their submissions.

School administrators also have a responsibility to ensure that the methods used to grade submissions, give feedback, and the storage of these elements are protected from tampering.

Scope

The academic standards specified here apply to submissions from students, towards assignments of any course conducted by Pupilfirst school.

Enforcement

Teaching assistants must report all instances of suspected plagiarism, or other malpractice to coaches, as specified in their guidelines.

School administrators’ decision on whether a certain event qualifies as either plagiarism or cheating can be challenged once by the student. If challenged, the determination made afterwards will be final.

Enforcement Guidelines

Lone instances of plagiarism

Action: Submitting work that is in a significant way, another person’s work, with or without the disclosure of source of the work.

Consequence: The student’s submission should be rejected, and the student should be informed of the event. A record of such events will be stored and may affect the student’s standing in the school. Upon completion of the course, these records may be shared with the student’s parent college if it has partnered with Pupilfirst.

Students can challenge such events. If the event is determined as a false positive, then the event will be removed from the student record. Otherwise, the student’s record will be updated to include information about the failed challenge.

Multiple instances of plagiarism

Action: Student engages in multiple instances of confirmed plagiarism.

Consequence: No certificate of completion should be issued for any course.

Course-specific Guidelines

Some courses have requirements that are specific to that line of work, in addition to the general guidelines written above. Please pay special attention to the following guidelines.

Web Development

Use of AI and Code Generation Tools

We recognize and encourage the use of AI tools and code generators as valuable resources in modern web development. Using AI assistants can enhance your learning experience by providing suggestions, generating code snippets, and helping solve problems.

Acceptable Use:

  • Using AI assistants to generate code snippets that you then study, adapt, and integrate into your projects.
  • Seeking explanations from AI tools to deepen your understanding of complex concepts.
  • Employing scaffolding tools to generate boilerplate code that you customize to fit your needs.

Unacceptable Use:

  • Submitting AI-generated code or content that you do not understand or cannot explain.
  • Using AI to generate entire functions or projects without your meaningful input or understanding.
  • Relying solely on AI to complete assignments without engaging with the learning material.

Guidelines:

  • Ensure that any AI-generated code you use is thoroughly reviewed and understood.
  • Be prepared to explain and justify the AI-assisted content in your submissions.
  • Remember that assessments may include checks for your understanding of concepts.
  • Submissions violating these guidelines will be subject to review and may be considered breaches of academic integrity.

Electric Vehicle

Use of AI-based Tools

We acknowledge that AI tools can assist in learning about electric vehicle technology. You are encouraged to use AI resources to enhance your understanding.

Guidelines:

  • All submitted work must reflect your own understanding and learning.
  • You should be able to explain and justify any AI-assisted content in your submissions.
  • Do not rely on AI tools to generate substantial portions of your assignments without critical engagement.

Submissions containing significant AI-generated content that you cannot explain or that do not reflect your understanding may be considered a breach of academic integrity.

Enforcement Guidelines

Misuse of AI Tools

Action: Submitting work generated by AI tools without adequate understanding or misrepresenting AI-generated content as your own understanding.

Consequence: The student’s submission will be rejected, and the student will be informed of the issue. A record of such incidents will be kept and may affect the student’s standing in the school.

Behavioral standards for all members

Examples of behaviour that contributes to a positive environment for our community include:

  • Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other people
  • Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences
  • Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback
  • Accepting responsibility and apologising to those affected by our mistakes, and learning from the experience
  • Focusing on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall community

Examples of unacceptable behaviour include:

  • The use of sexualised language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind
  • Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
  • Public or private harassment
  • Publishing private information of other members, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission
  • Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in an educational setting

Enforcement Responsibilities

Community moderators are responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards of acceptable behaviour and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behaviour that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.

Community moderators have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject posts, messages, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct, and will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate.

Scope

This Code of Conduct applies within all community spaces and also applies when an individual is officially representing the community in public spaces. Examples of representing our community include using an official email address, posting via an official social media account, or acting as an appointed representative at an online or offline event.

Enforcement

Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behaviour may be reported to the school administrators responsible for enforcement at conduct@pupilfirst.org.

All complaints will be reviewed and investigated promptly and fairly.

All community moderators and school administrators are obligated to respect the privacy and security of the reporter of any incident.

Enforcement Guidelines

Community moderators will follow these Community Impact Guidelines in determining the consequences for any action they deem in violation of this Code of Conduct:

1. Correction

Community Impact: Use of inappropriate language or other behaviour deemed unwelcome in the community.

Consequence: A private, written warning from community moderators, providing clarity around the nature of the violation and an explanation of why the behaviour was inappropriate. A public apology may be requested.

2. Warning

Community Impact: A violation through a single incident or series of actions.

Consequence: A warning with consequences for continued behaviour. No interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Code of Conduct, for a specified period. This includes avoiding interactions in community spaces as well as external channels like social media. Violating these terms may lead to a temporary or permanent ban.

3. Temporary Ban

Community Impact: A serious violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behaviour.

Consequence: A temporary ban from any sort of interaction or public communication with the community for a specified period. No public or private interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Code of Conduct, is allowed during this period. Violating these terms may lead to a permanent ban.

4. Permanent Ban

Community Impact: Demonstrating a pattern of violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behaviour, harassment of an individual, or aggression toward or disparagement of classes of individuals.

Consequence: A permanent ban from any sort of public interaction within the community. Depending on the severity of the incident, community moderators in consultation with school administrators may also impose restrictions on access to related courses. Once a decision has been taken, it should be communicated to the student and their reporting authority.

Attribution

Parts of this Code of Conduct are adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 2.1.

Community Impact Guidelines were inspired by Mozilla’s code of conduct enforcement ladder.

Updates

This document was last updated on September 30, 2024.

Contact

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our Code of Conduct, please write to conduct@pupilfirst.org.