Tutoring policy


Written by Keith Schwarz on behalf of CS Educational Affairs

You are welcome to make use of tutoring resources, both on-campus and off-campus, to help solidify conceptual content, to deepen understanding of course topics, to fill gaps in understanding, and to work through ungraded practice problems. Tutoring can be a great way to work through topics you're having trouble understanding and to get input from someone with more experience than you.

Tutoring, however, is not appropriate for help with work that will be submitted for a grade. When you have questions about the assignments or exams, please direct them to the course staff - we're happy to help out!

Our formal tutoring policy is as follows. The word "tutoring" has a broad meaning, and we'll interpret it to mean any assistance with the course content or topics from someone who is not currently enrolled in the course and is not a member of the course staff. For example, CTL and AARC tutors and help websites like Chegg or Stack Overflow count as tutoring. Similarly, support or advice from past students (say, someone in your dorm who has already completed a course you're taking) counts as tutoring. We consider anyone who offers you support in this context is a tutor, regardless of formal titles. We also treat generative AI tools as a tutor.

Tutoring must abide by the following rules for CS106B

  1. Tutors must be familiar with the Honor Code policy for a course prior to giving help. Importantly, not knowing the Honor Code and tutoring policies for a course does not protect you or your tutors from any Honor Code infractions. A student and tutor should review the course Honor Code policy together to set appropriate expectations and establish clear boundaries.
  2. Tutors must not review, look at, offer advice, or otherwise offer assistance with any work that you will submit for a grade or which could be reasonably expected to be submitted for a grade. This means, among other things, that tutors cannot help debug or write code for or related to programming assignments, review written proofs, etc.
  3. Tutors must not refer to course materials from previous offerings of the course. For example, tutors are not allowed to refer to lecture slides or solution sets used in previous quarters. They are permitted to reference the current quarter’s materials, subject to the restrictions from (2).
  4. Tutors must not share any other student’s work with you, including their own. For example, tutors may not share past submitted problem sets or coding assignments as a reference, even if the tutor was the original author of that work.
  5. Tutors and students are obligated under the Honor Code to "do their share and take an active part" in seeing to it that students and tutors do not ask for or receive unpermitted aid.
  6. Course instructors may, at their discretion, place additional limits on permitted tutoring. It is the responsibility of both students and tutors to be aware of and follow these rules.

Failure to abide by these rules may constitute a violation of the Honor Code. If you have any questions about what is and is not permitted, either as a student or as a tutor, please contact the course instructor directly. We're happy to clarify our policies and help ensure folks get the support they need while keeping everything above board.

Use of generative AI

Generative AI tools have the potential to be a valuable supplement or perhaps even replacement of human tutors. However, use of these tools must adhere the tutoring policy. You may use such tools for help that is allowed for human tutors (such as help in understanding course concepts or working through practice problems), but it is disallowed to use these tools for assistance on work that will be submitted for a grade.