[fr0sty]

Requiring students to submit their VCS history along with the finished project would at least up the cost to the students for copy and pasting.

They even hint at that sort of solution in the piece by mentioning cosmetic changes to the files at the last minute.

[emidln]

I wrote assignments for cash in college. When it came time for me to take a class, it was noticed that my work was very similar to past students. I tried using my VCS history as a defense when my prof noticed that my homework was similar to that of past students. After questioning some former students, it became obvious that the reason my VCS history was reasonable and style still so similar was that I was the person who had written other student's assignments in the past.

[ngomez]

I'm also a TA for the class mentioned in this article. We teach Git and have a submission system where students submit patches based on skeleton code; students are required to make at least five commits. We still have a significant number of students who copy code, and while it does help with picking up on that kind of behavior those students also don't seem to care about the increased cost and will pad their commits anyway.

[rrauenza]

Was going to post something similar -- to protect myself as a student, I'd quickly adopt git to keep a history of my work. Not that this couldn't be forged...

Does git count as a block chain for proof of work? :)

[bsder]

Pretty much. When I taught CS, I told people to commit early and commit often.

This has so many advantages even beyond defending against plagiarism charges that it really wasn't hard to drive home.

The big advantages being defense against the inevitable computer crash and the inevitable directory deletion.

[pkamb]

Wish I was taught or even knew what VCS was in University.