homework app github

GitHub Copilot now available for teachers

After a year in technical preview, GitHub Copilot, an AI pair programmer, is now free for all teachers verified on GitHub Global Campus.

GitHub is committed to responsible innovation, while also lowering the barriers to entry for anyone interested in learning how to code. Part of that commitment means making tools available free of charge to those educating the next generation of software developers. So far, we’ve been able to offer multiple benefits , including free cloud compute to teachers via GitHub Codespaces .

Today, we’re excited to announce the free availability of GitHub Copilot for all teachers verified on GitHub Global Campus . (Not sure if you’re verified? See below for more details).

What is GitHub Copilot?

GiHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer that uses OpenAI Codex to suggest code and entire functions in real time, right from your editor. Earlier this summer, following a successful year long technical preview with more than 1.2 million developers, we launched GitHub Copilot for individuals . The feedback received from the community has made it abundantly clear: AI is one of the best tools to empower the next generation of developers. With GitHub Copilot, developers have more time and space to focus on solving bigger problems and building even better software.

How does GitHub Copilot impact your classroom?

We recognize the challenge of integrating GitHub Copilot into your classroom, and are committed to partnering closely with our teacher community on how GitHub Copilot can support you and your students. As a first step, we’ve been working with partners to identify how GitHub Copilot might impact your curriculum, as well as the emerging opportunities. Here’s what we know:

GitHub Copilot gets good grades

GitHub Copilot is effective at solving many introductory programming assignments, which may impact how you assess your students. One study found that solutions generated by GitHub Copilot placed it amongst the top 25% of students in a cohort.

This technology should be of great interest to all computing educators. What we are dealing with is a freely-available program that can take casually defined English language problem specifications, much like typical exam questions, and return often-correct, well-structured code that could pass as human-written.

Paul Denny, associate professor at the University of Auckland, and coauthor of the study, says, “This technology has arrived quickly and will be a challenge for many existing teaching approaches, but it also presents unique opportunities for course and content design and new ways of teaching.”

For example, let’s take a look at GitHub Copilot attempting to solve a version of the classic ‘Rainfall problem’.

In this case, GitHub Copilot has produced a plausible solution but it’s not perfect. That’s to be expected. As GitHub Copilot keeps changing, your own results with the same prompts may differ. Try your own assignments with GitHub Copilot to see how well it performs.

GitHub Copilot generates useful explanations of source code

Paul and colleagues from Aalto University have also used the model to generate explanations of code examples for students. According to Paul, “We have subsequently found that many of the code explanations, from line-by-line descriptions to high-level summaries, are very accurate and often text-book-like and perceived by students to be helpful.”

Here’s an example of GitHub Copilot solving another problem, which we incrementally make harder. It finishes with an explanation of its solution.

And here’s an example of modular exponentiation . Github Copilot explains the code, principle and states the time complexity.

GitHub Copilot can generate coding assignments

Paul and his colleagues also showed that GitHub Copilot can generate new programming assignments. We tried their approach and this is what we got:

Not every example works this well. The benefits of generating your own learning resources are robust and well known. Tools like this could assist students in producing practice materials and learning from thinking critically about their merit.

Get involved

If you’re interested in sharing your experience, feedback, or ideas, please join the conversation with other verified teachers on GitHub Global Campus.

Not yet verified? Join GitHub Global Campus for teachers .

We gratefully acknowledge the authors of the papers we cited in this blog, including: James Finnie-Ansley, Paul Denny, Brett Becker, Andrew Luxton-Reilly, James Prather, Sami Sarsa, Arto Hellas, and Juho Leinonen.

GitHub Copilot

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How to deal with student putting their (home)work on github

While using github for source code is generally something I love to encourage, if a student puts their (computer science) homework there, it's generally easy for others to find and copy - which creates a temptation to use it as a "baseline" for their own (identical in most cases) homework - while I understand the benefits of using github (versioning, transitioning across machines easily, teamwork-capabilities), and the individual student who is using it has verified that it is indeed their account and can explain the code well, I still feel uncomfortable with it.

Has anyone else dealt with this issue? how did you handle it? does the university have some sort of policy around publishing student-created work openly? (even if it is part of an assignment)?

As a side-note, my general policy regarding "very similar" assignments is that whomever submitted it first gets the points, and the other submissions do not receive any points, however I tend to ask the students to explain their code and how it works, why they chose X over Y, etc. in such cases first.

edit: I have been informed that there does exist a free version of github that students can use to host private repositories, and this is likely the course of action I will go with for the near future, however, there are several drawbacks:

• The student will be unable to showcase their work (i.e. a link to their github on their resume)
• The student will not be a student forever, and thus the repository won't be able to be private for free indefinitely
• I have very little control (and interest in policing it) once the class is over, so the student could decide to make the repository public once the class is over.

• 6 Bitbucket is free. –  Vaughan Hilts Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 4:38
• 10 GitHub private repositories are free for students: github.com/edu . As a teacher, you might also be able to get stuff. They call it "Request a discount", but for students the deal is "Micro account (normally $7/month) with five private repositories while you're a student" –  yakatz Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 4:44
• 2 Do note that Github takes forever to process a education account. –  Vaughan Hilts Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 5:02
• 6 What about a local git repository? If you want cloud backup, you could use it together with dropbox etc. –  RJ- Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 5:27
• 2 To be frank, points 2 and 3 you have absolutely no control over anyway. The easiest thing to do would be to subtly change the assignment so that "last year's solution" doesn't work. –  Fomite Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 14:39

8 Answers 8

Give students assignments where their work must address one of their personal interests. For example, instead of having every student program pizza maker, have each student program a machine to make their favorite food. This will make copy-and-paste cheating more difficult. It will also make students more interested and make your grading more interesting.

• 12 Makes it a lot harder on the autograder –  user2813274 Commented Dec 13, 2014 at 4:51
• 3 @user2813274 Providing individualized feedback will help student learn more, so it is worth it. –  Anonymous Physicist Commented Dec 13, 2014 at 17:19
• @user2813274: What exactly is that? I'm not a computer scientist, but I code for fun. Does it somehow access the complexity of the code? –  JNS Commented Dec 13, 2014 at 21:39
• 1 @user1997744 an autograder is a site where students can upload their code, have it executed, and give feedback if it passes/fails - basically the same as a unit test case, however I can keep the test cases hidden from the students such that they don't code against specific scenarios and miss the general solution. –  user2813274 Commented Dec 14, 2014 at 3:50
• 2 @user1997744 the auto-grader is an optional tool for the students to use before turning in an assignment (although it correlates quite well as to how they do typically..) –  user2813274 Commented Dec 14, 2014 at 22:48

I think your point 1 is fundamentally at odds with preventing homework sharing/copying. If someone can showcase their work, they can showcase it to their fellow students. Your points 2 and 3 suggest you want to re-use the same assignment over and over when teaching the class again, which makes this conflict even more inevitable. There's no way to allow students to share their work publically with anyone who might want to employ them, while also keeping it secret from their fellow students.

There's nothing you can do to keep everything a student does in your class hidden forever. I think the best solution is to require students to keep their work private during the class (using a Github edu account, Bitbucket, local git repo, whatever), then let them do whatever they want later. That means you will have to make new assignments every time you teach the class, but I think that is good practice anyway.

There are many things to balance here, and the "best" solution is somewhat subjective.

However, in my opinion, the educational benefit of allowing students to learn version control early far outweigh the increased risk of exposing their code to others who would cheat. If your students are planning to go on to work as programmers in industry, being skilled with version control is almost as valuable as being skilled with coding. Programming is not a solitary task these days, after all.

Another thing to consider: at my undergraduate university, there was no department-wide policy on public version control (and I don't remember any professors having such a policy). However, I remember hearing it suggested that posting code on a public GitHub violated the general policy against plagiarism. This sort of ambiguity is bad for everyone. Whatever you decide is the right way to go, I would recommend stating your expectations explicitly with respect to public version control.

It seems one point that is missing in this discussion is that at least in USA students own the copyright of their (nontrivial) work. As copyright holders they can reproduce, distribute, and display their works. Of course they can also create derivative works. So restriction on students' right may not even be legal.

• 1 Copyright requires that a certain "threshold of originality" is exceeded. A solution to a simple programming task may not be original enough to warrant copyright. –  lighthouse keeper Commented May 11, 2020 at 11:39
• If a solution to a simple programming task isn't sufficiently original to merit copyright, it's probably not sufficiently original that this student posting their work matters in the grant scheme of things -- solutions to simple programming tasks like that are readily available online. –  Sparksbet Commented Jun 29, 2020 at 23:08

My focus on programming assignments has moved to having students copy all they want from all the GitHub repositories in the world, but to reference them in a report about the process by which they solved the problem, written in complete sentences. This is seen as cruel and unusual punishment by first-year students, but when former students meet me in town after graduation that is what they thank me for, that I taught them to write reports. And that their reports make a great reference for themselves.

We can't police this behavior, so we have to try and educate people. We teach them to value other people's work by citing it or giving credit, and we insist that they reflect on what they did. So it is fine to say: I got this code from Nancy, and then I asked Steve how to put widgets on this, and as a result I finally got this to work. That makes it easier for me to judge what the contribution of the student is.

It is more work for me, so I have gone to having the students do pair programming, assigning them random partners each week. That's a good exercise for them as well, and they get to know each other better.

You may try automated plagiarism detection, such as MOSS developed by Stanford. It detects similarities among code files, somewhat regardless of how the variables are named, the order of execution, etc. Then a human could manually look at the similarities and judge whether it is a case of plagiarism. Moreover, as I recall, MOSS allows input of shared codebase, meaning that the "starter code" provided to all students would not count towards similarity.

• 2 It "tries" to detect plagiarism. There are a few other programs out there, but none actually detect all plagiarism. –  Debora Weber-Wulff Commented May 11, 2020 at 21:15

The optimal solution is to accompany the automatic code grading with a human face-to-face code-review, where the students must explain their code to you, and you can also ask them to make minor changes onlile to verify that they know what they did. If you do this, you do not have to worry about copying since the code-review will tell you how well they know the material.

The problem is that this solution requires a lot of work - at least 15 minutes per student per week. I do not have enough budget for this, so I use a sub-optimal solution: I make the weekly assignments only 10%-20% of the final grade, so that the incentive to copy is minimal. Meanwhile, I make sure that the final exam contains questions that are very similar to the assignments. Thus, students who have made the homework by themselves will have a higher grade in the final exam than copiers.

It is homework and not an exam. The students who just use it without understanding it risk to fail the exam and that's their problem not yours. They are all grownups and need to decide themself if they want to learn something or just to copy something.

As homework usually does not influence the final grade but only the admission to the exam, it is not worth to try to prevent it.

And github is one thing, but students have internal fileservers and wikis and other ways to organize how to exchange current homework or even a complete set of assignments from last year.

Make sure that everything that gets an actually relevant grade is not done without supervision and be a bit more relaxed about homework that should just help the students to learn and is not used to document their skill like a graded exam.

If you actually see that the code is copied between two students, you may not accept it. But this should be done by comparing their solutions not by monitoring github. They may copy in private or they may have worked together and you need to decide it based on the submission of their work.

When they are actually able to re-use code from the previous year, you may consider changing the assigments in a way that the code cannot be used without at least understanding it.

• I hear chem students in the library talking about cheating their final exams like they cheated the second exam. These people are going to fail Chem 2 hard; they won't make it through Orgo. At a point, you know so little about the topic you can't even figure out how to cheat. –  John Moser Commented Dec 15, 2023 at 14:40

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Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the 5 best homework help apps you can use.

General Education

We know that homework can be a real drag. It’s time-consuming, and can be difficult to complete all on your own. So, what can you do if you’re struggling?

You might try looking online or in the app store! If you’ve already looked around you probably know that there are tons of homework sites for students and homework apps out there that all say they can help you improve your grades and pass your classes. But, can you trust them? And what are the best apps for homework help?

Below, we answer these questions and more about homework help apps–free and paid . We’ll go over: 

• The basics of homework help apps
• The cost of homework help apps
• The five best apps for homework help
• The pros and cons of using apps that help you with homework 
• The line between “learning” and “cheating” when using apps that help you with homework
• Tips for getting the most out of homework sites for students 

So let’s jump in!

The Basics About Apps that Help You With Homework–Free and Paid

The bottom line is, homework sites and homework apps are intended to help you complete your take-home assignments successfully. They provide assistance that ranges from answering questions you submit through a portal all the way to one-on-one tutoring, depending on the help you need! 

The big plus for both homework help apps and websites is that they usually offer help on-demand. So if you can’t make it to after school tutoring, or if you're studying late into the night (it happens!), you can still access the help you need! 

If you’re specifically looking for an answer to the question: “what is the best homework help website ?,” you can check out our article on those here! [LINK COMING SOON]

What’s the Difference Between a Homework Help Website and an App?

So if they’re both designed to give you a little boost with your take-home assignments, what makes homework apps and websites different from one another? First off, homework help websites are optimized to be used on a desktop, while apps are designed to be run natively on mobile devices. So depending on which devices you have access to, you may decide to use a website instead of an app…or vice versa! 

The other big difference between homework help apps and websites is that they sometimes offer different features. For instance, with the Photomath app, you’ll be able to submit photos of math problems instead of having to type everything out, which is easier to do by using an app on your phone. 

If you’re trying to decide whether to go with a website or app, the good news is that you may not have to. Some homework help websites also have companion apps, so you can have the best of both worlds!

What Makes a Homework Help App Worth Using

Apps that help you with homework should ideally help you actually learn the material you’re struggling with, and/or help you turn in your work on time. Most of the best apps for homework help allow you to ask questions and provide answers and explanations almost immediately. And like we mentioned earlier, many of these apps let you send a picture of a question or problem instead of writing it all out.

But homework help apps offer more than just quick answers and explanations for your assignment questions. They also offer things like educational videos, lectures, tutorials, practice tests and quizzes, math solving tools, proofreading services, and even Q&A with experts.

And the best part is, most offer these services 24/7! 

What You Should Look Out For

When it comes to homework help, there are lots–and we mean lots –of apps willing to prey on desperate students. Before you download any apps (and especially before you pay to sign up for any services), read reviews of the app to ensure you’re working with a legitimate company. 

Keep in mind: the more a company advertises help that seems like cheating, the more likely it is to be a scam. Actual subject matter experts aren’t likely to work with those companies. Remember, the best apps for homework help are going to help you learn the concepts needed to successfully complete your homework on your own. 

If you’re not sure if an app is legitimate, you can also check to see if the app has an honor code about using their services ethically , like this one from Brainly. (We’ll go over the difference between “homework help” and “cheating” in more detail a little later!) 

How Expensive Are Apps That Help You With Homework?

A word to the wise: just because a homework help app costs money doesn’t mean it’s a good service. And, just because a homework help app is free doesn’t mean the help isn’t high quality. To find the best apps, you have to take a close look at the quality and types of information they provide! 

Most of the apps out there allow you to download them for free, and provide at least some free services–such as a couple of free questions and answers. Additional services or subscriptions are then charged as in-app purchases. When it comes to in-app purchases and subscriptions for homework help, the prices vary depending on the amount of services you want to subscribe to. Subscriptions can cost anywhere from $2 to around $60 dollars per month, with the most expensive app subscriptions including some tutoring (which is usually only available through homework help websites.)

The 5 Best Apps for Homework Help

Okay, now that you’re up to speed on what these apps are and how they can help you, we’ll run you through the best five apps you can use. 

Keep in mind that even though we recommend all of these apps, they tend to excel at different things. We’ve broken these apps into categories so that you can pick the best one for your needs! 

Best Free Homework Help App: Khan Academy

• Price: Free!
• Best for: Practicing tough material 

While there are lots of free homework help apps out there, this is our favorite because it actually supports learning, rather than just providing answers. The Khan Academy app works like the website, and offers the same services. It’s full of information and can be personalized to suit your educational needs. 

After you download the app, you choose which courses you need to study, and Khan Academy sets up a personal dashboard of instructional videos, practice exercises, and quizzes –with both correct and incorrect answer explanations–so you can learn at your own pace. 

As an added bonus, it covers more course topics than many other homework help apps, including several AP classes.

Best Paid Homework Help App: Brainly

• Price: $18 for a 6 month subscription, $24 for a year 
• Best for: 24/7 homework assistance 

Brainly is free to download and allows you to type in questions (or snap a pic) and get answers and explanations from both fellow students and teachers. Plus, subject matter experts and moderators verify answers daily, so you know you’re getting quality solutions! The downside is that you’re limited to two free answers per question and have to watch ads for more if you don’t pay for a subscription. 

That said, their subscription fees average around only $2 per month, making this a particularly affordable option if you’re looking for homework help on a budget. Brainly subscriptions not only cover unlimited answers and explanations on a wide variety of school subjects (including Art and World Languages which aren’t always included in other apps), they also provide tutoring in Math and Physics!

Best App for Math Homework Help: Photomath

• Price: Free (or up to $59.99 per year for premium services) 
• Best for: Explaining solutions to math problems

This app allows you to take a picture of a math problem, and instantly pulls up a step-by-step solution, as well as a detailed explanation of the concept. Photomath subscription services also include animated videos that break down mathematical concepts–all the way up to advanced Calculus!--to help you better understand and remember them. 

The basic textbook solution service is free, but for an additional fee you can get extra study tools, access to one-on-one tutoring, and additional strategies for solving common math problems.

Best App for STEM and English Homework Help: Studypool

• Price: Varies; you’ll pay for each question you submit
• Best for: Science and English homework help in one app

When it comes to apps for science and English homework help, there aren’t lots of great resources out there, much less out there all in one place. While Grammarly is a good service for proofreading, SparkNotes has some decent summaries, and Khan Academy covers science, the best of the bunch if you need help with both subjects Studypool. Instead of using lots of different apps for STEM and English help, they’re combined together here! But while Studypool has great reviews, there are some downsides as well. 

The Studypool Q&A model is a little different than other homework help apps. After you create a free account, you ask questions, and tutors submit bids to answer them. You’ll be able to select the tutor–and price point–that works for you, then you’ll pay to have your homework question answered. You can also pay a small fee to access thousands of notes, lectures, and other documents that top tutors have uploaded.  

The downside to Studypool is that the pricing is not transparent . There’s no way to plan for how much your homework help will cost, especially if you have lots of questions! It’s also not clear how they choose their tutors, so you’ll need to be careful when you decide who you’d like to answer your homework questions. That said, if you only need a few questions answered per month, this could be cheaper than other monthly subscription services.

Best Homework Scheduling App: MyStudyLife

• Best for: Keeping track of your schedule and deadlines

If the reason you’re looking for homework help is less about finding answers to questions and more about needing assistance with organization and time-management , MyStudyLife is a great option. This is a cross-platform planner that allows you to store your class schedule, upcoming tests, and homework assignments in the cloud so you can access it all wherever you are, and on any device. 

One of the unique things about it is that it easily works for daily or weekly rotating class schedules that can get confusing, helping you keep track of when you need to finish your homework based on your changing schedule. You can get reminders for upcoming classes and assignments as well as past-due homework and any revisions you may need to do. It can even let you know when you need to start studying for a big test!

Best of all, you can actually schedule assignments and study sessions for multiple nights, and specify how much of the task you got done each night. That way you’ll know how much additional time you’ll need to spend! 

While homework apps might seem like magic, it's important to weigh the pros and cons before you commit to one. 

What Are the Pros and Cons of Using Homework Help Apps?

Homework help apps can be useful tools if you’re struggling in any of your classes. But there are a few problems you might run into if you don’t use them ethically and responsibly. 

Below we’ll cover some of the good and the not-so-good parts of using homework help apps to complete your take-home assignments.

3 Pros of Using Homework Help Apps

Let’s start with the pros of using apps for homework help.

Pro 1: All-Around Better Grades

This is undeniably the main pro and the reason apps that help you with homework are so popular with students. Not only can you potentially get better grades on individual assignments, because they help you learn tricky concepts, you can also earn better grades overall .

Just keep in mind that if you want better grades you have to actually learn the material you’re studying, not just find easy answers. So be sure to use apps that provide good explanations . That way you’ll have the mental tools you need to succeed on your class exams and on standardized tests for college. 

Pro 2: Flexibility

It’s hard to beat homework help that you can access anywhere you are from your mobile device. You can also get assistance whenever you need it since the best apps offer their services 24/7. This is especially useful for students who need to study during hours when their free school resources aren’t available because of extracurriculars, jobs, or family obligations. 

If you need convenient and flexible homework help or tutoring services to fit your schedule, apps can be your go-to resource. 

Pro 3: Individualized Learning

Sometimes the kind of learner you are doesn’t match your teacher’s style of teaching. Or maybe the pace of a class is a little too fast or too slow for your tastes. Homework apps can help by allowing you to learn at your own speed and in ways that support your own learning style. 

You can use their features, such as educational videos, 24/7 conversations with experts and peers, and tutorials to review concepts you may have forgotten. These apps can also let you dive deeper into topics or subjects you enjoy! With homework help apps, you get to choose what you need to learn and how you learn it.

3 Cons of Using Homework Help Apps

Next, let’s look at the cons of homework help apps. 

Con 1: Questionable Info 

Unfortunately there are lots of less-than-reliable homework help apps out there. They might not hire actual experts in their fields to provide answers and create study tools, or they rely on user-submitted answers that they don’t verify. In those cases, you might not be getting the accurate, thorough, and up-to-date answers you need to really learn.

In addition to the possibility of running into plain-old wrong answers, even the best apps sometimes just won’t have a specific answer you need. This could be because you’re enrolled in an advanced class the app doesn’t really cover or because of the algorithm or chatbot a particular app uses. 

If that’s the case , your best bet will likely be to talk to your teacher or a free tutor (if your school provides them) to get help answering your question.

Con 2: Information Overload

While having tons of information at your fingertips can be helpful, the sheer amount and variety of videos, tutorials, expert answers, and resources a homework app provides can be overwhelming . It’s also easy to get sucked into a research rabbit-hole where you learn new things but don’t actually get your work done. This is especially true for students who tend to be easily distracted.

Additionally, you may be learning to do things differently than you’ve learned them in class , which could cause problems. For example, if your math teacher asks you to solve a problem one way, but you learned to do it differently through an app, you could get confused come test time! 

Con 3: Cutting Corners

There are a lot of apps out there that bill themselves as “the best app for cheating.” They allow users to type in a question or take a picture, then instantly provide an answer without any explanation of the material. Many of these are scams or provide unreliable answers, but not all. Some apps are legitimate and provide quick and easy answers that could allow you to do your whole homework assignment in minutes. 

The problem is that even though taking shortcuts on homework to save time is tempting, it can keep you from really learning. The point of practicing concepts and skills is so you develop them and can access them whenever you need to. This is especially true if skills build on one another, like in a math or English class. 

Sometimes s truggling with an assignment or question, trying, failing, then trying again until you succeed can help you learn difficult material. If you don’t let yourself really try, and instead take too many shortcuts, you may end up behind.

When Does “Help” Become “Cheating”?

When it comes to using homework help apps, sometimes the difference between “help” and “cheating” is really clear. For example, if you’re using an app to get answers while you’re taking a test, that’s definitely cheating . But what if you’re struggling with a math problem and need to know the correct answer so you can work backwards to learn the process? Is that “cheating” or is it “help?” 

The truth is, not everyone agrees on when “help” crosses the line into “cheating .” If you’re not sure, you can always check with your teacher to see what they think about a particular type of help you want to get. That said, a general rule of thumb to keep in mind is to make sure that the assignment you turn in for credit is authentically yours . It needs to demonstrate your own thoughts and your own current abilities. Remember: the point of every homework assignment is to 1) help you learn something, and 2) show what you’ve learned. 

So if you’re relying on an app to do all of the work for you, there’s a good chance using it might constitute cheating. 

Think of it this way: say you’re studying for an upcoming math test, and are stumped by a few of the questions on the study guide. Even though you’ve tried and tried, you can’t seem to get the right answer because you can’t remember the steps to take. Using an app to explain the steps as you’re studying is “help.” Using the app to get answers so you can make a good homework grade is “cheating.” 

The same is true for other subjects: brainstorming essay ideas with others or looking online for inspiration is “help” as long as you write the essay yourself. Having someone read it and give you feedback about what you need to change is also “help,” provided you’re the one that makes the changes later. 

But copying all or part of an essay you find online or having someone write (or rewrite) the whole thing for you would be “cheating.” Ultimately, if you’re not generating your own work or learning to produce your own answers, it’s probably cheating. 

5 Tips for Finding the Best Homework Help App for You

If you’re serious about using a homework help app, our expert tips can help you pick one that’s right for you and your budget!

#1: Decide What Tools You Need to Succeed 

While most apps offer Q&A services, the best apps provide study tools to help you learn the material you need to learn . 

For instance, if you’re a visual learner, you might need an app that provides lots of videos. If you learn best by reading, an app that provides lots of in-depth written resources might be better for you. Or, if you learn best by actually doing things, look for an app that provides practice tests and quizzes, along with explanations for correct and incorrect answers.

Before committing to an app, take a quick survey of the tools they offer users to make sure they meet your unique learning needs. 

#2: Decide Which Subjects You Need to Study

Not all homework apps are created equal. One might provide tutoring in math and science, but no proofreading services to help you with writing. Another might be perfect for American History, but what you really need help with is your Spanish class. So, before you can decide which app is best for you, make sure to create a list of the subjects you need the most help in.

#3: Do Your Research

As we’ve said before, there are tons of homework apps in the app store to choose from, and the most important thing you can do is research what they offer students. Services, prices for those services, and subjects that the apps cover all vary, so it’s important that you look into your options. We’ve compiled our all-around favorite (and reliable) apps here, but it’s still a good idea to do your own research to find out what might meet your individual needs best.

#4: Learn Why People Like and Dislike the App

Maybe you’ve heard the phrase “buyer beware?” It means that the person buying something should check for quality before actually handing over their money. This applies to both free and paid homework apps, but especially those that actually cost money.

Before you download anything, be sure to read the user reviews . While all apps will have both positive and negative reviews, you want to look for one that has more positive than negative. And if you’re considering paying for a service, be sure that users think it’s worth the price overall!

#5: Budget Yourself

If you find a paid app that provides the learning tools you need, covers the subjects you need to study, and that has good reviews overall, set a budget to pay for it before you hit that “install” button. The costs for paid homework apps vary, and especially if you’re using one that requires you to pay for individual questions or services, the prices can add up quickly. So make sure there’s money for it in your budget before you commit!

What’s Next?

If you’re not quite sure why you’re struggling with homework, or want to know how you can do your homework as quickly as possible , check out this list of 15 expert homework tips and tricks to make your life a little bit easier!

Effective studying requires the right balance of concentration, understanding, retention and rest. So if you need help striking that balance, read these 16 tips for better study habits in both the short and long-term.

Getting good grades is about more than just answering questions correctly on your assignments. It also requires planning ahead and participation. In this article we cover the academic survival strategies that can help you throughout high school .

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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Homework App

This application allows students to keep track of their assignments. It provides the option of a chat to discuss assignments, and it generates resources that may be used for a particular assignment

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log in page

This section allows users to view assignments

This section allows a user to add an assignment

This section enables a user to view more details about an assignment

The chat section allows users to discuss an assignment

Inspiration

Our inspiration was helping students to have an easier time while studying

What it does

The application allows a student to add assignments, they are given notifications to complete their assignments. Apart from that, it allows the students to chat with each other in order to discuss assignments. Furthermore, it generates resources that may be used to undertake the assignment

How we built it

The app was designed using Figma.

Challenges we ran into

We had a challenge in syncing our timetables in order to meet and discuss the project

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of creating a very interactive, fun and appealing UI, that will server to motivate students to use the application and complete their projects

What we learned

We have learned to compromise and understand when one of our members needs help in completing their module

What's next for Homework App

What is next is development because it has only been designed

Abigael Kirwa started this project — Oct 01, 2022 03:29 AM EDT

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Should you post basic computer science homework to your github?

I am currently taking computer science coursework as part of a computer science related degree at my University. I was wondering if I should upload the solutions I make for various trivial homework assignments (ie. not more than 20-30 or so lines of code, on basic/fundamental topics) to my GitHub account, or if I should only upload larger course/personal projects to it. I have only been regularly coding for about a year, and a large portion of the code I have written was for a company where I was under an NDA, so I was wondering if this would be an appropriate way to add more breadth to future job applications.

• $\begingroup$ I don't think simple exercises will add much to your portfolio. $\endgroup$ –  Yuval Filmus Commented Dec 28, 2020 at 21:05
• 2 $\begingroup$ Did you consider contributing to some existing open source project, like fish , GNU bash or RefPerSys ? $\endgroup$ –  Basile Starynkevitch Commented Dec 29, 2020 at 6:19
• $\begingroup$ Yes, but full-time coursework and employment gets in the way of making significant amounts of progress on outside projects. I figured since I'm coding anyway I might as well add it on to my portfolio, so that way employers could tell I'm not just sitting around not coding anything at all. $\endgroup$ –  nyomu Commented Dec 29, 2020 at 18:59

3 Answers 3

No, solutions to homework assignments are not likely to impress potential future employers.

Many professors would prefer that you not post solutions to homework assignments to public Github repositories. Why? If they ever reuse those problems in a future semester, then by making the solutions publicly available you are creating a temptation to cheat for other students, and that can be detrimental. So it would be a kindness to avoid publicly posting solutions.

If you are a student, you can get free unlimited private repositories on Github that you could use for homework assignments. Just make sure not to let them revert to public when you graduate.

• 8 $\begingroup$ Minor nitpick but free unlimited private repos are to everyone now on github, though students should still take advantage of the developer pack $\endgroup$ –  questionerofdy Commented Dec 29, 2020 at 6:07
• $\begingroup$ That really depends on what the assignment is. Sure, implementing some sorting algorithm is probably not going to impress employers, but if you happen to get an assignment like implementing an actual application over the course of a semester, I don't see why not. I'm not sure if this is common where you're from (I assume not, given the tone of this answer), but I had a few projects like this during my degree. $\endgroup$ –  Noctiphobia Commented Dec 29, 2020 at 16:32
• 4 $\begingroup$ The fact that many professors would prefer that one not publicly posts solutions to homework assignments it's something that, in my opinion, should be better fought rather than supported, and should not deter students from possibly showing-off their skills (a similar opinion of mine on a related matter). $\endgroup$ –  Massimo Ortolano Commented Dec 29, 2020 at 18:05
• $\begingroup$ @questionerofdy Other Git hosting services (e.g. codeberg.org , sr.ht ) do more, work better and are less likely to cause problems for you in the future. (sr.ht is not free, though, except in its alpha.) $\endgroup$ –  wizzwizz4 Commented Dec 29, 2020 at 18:48
• 2 $\begingroup$ @Noctiphobia The OP specified not more than 20-30 lines of code on basic/fundamental topics. $\endgroup$ –  user3067860 Commented Dec 29, 2020 at 19:42

I'd recommend that you talk with your professors. No one here can speak for your professor (unless your professors is here).

From my experience, I'd bet that most professors would love your enthusiasm but be very reluctant to allow it because of the issues with plagiarism and academic integrity. If you discuss it with the professor you may find that they are open to extra credit projects or something to give you some opportunity to add to your repositories. Go into the discussion fully expecting it to be a long shot.

I've had quite a few syllabi state that storing class work in a public repository would be considered a breach in our academic integrity policies, but at the same time I've also been given permission from other professors to use GitHub public repositories on a number of projects. It usually came down to if the mission of the project is unique to the student/team. When every team is creating a one of a kind project, it usually becomes less of a problem to create a public repository. The best luck I've had getting public GitHub repository approval was with professors that offed independent study extra credit opportunities and when we had group projects.

In any case, never assume that you can upload any coursework to a public repository! Discuss it with your professors.

• 2 $\begingroup$ "never assume that you can upload any coursework to a public repository" : let me add that this advice is probably culture-dependent. In the German academic culture I experienced, the default was that you can share anything. In fact, our student council publicly collects old written/oral exam questions. And professors know this; some even recommend you to take a look at them. Rarely do they kindly ask you to not publish things, knowing they couldn't/wouldn't want to go down to legal path of forcing you anyway. $\endgroup$ –  ComFreek Commented Dec 30, 2020 at 12:09
• $\begingroup$ @ComFreek that’s a good point. I believe the pros of taking this advice outweigh the cons in general because asking will likely do little harm regardless while, depending on the situation, making an assumption can lead to complications. $\endgroup$ –  Joshua096 Commented Jan 2, 2021 at 12:46

For advanced homework solutions, I'd indeed consider polishing and uploading or writing a blog post about it.

The natural way to create advanced solutions is to solve advanced exercises that are stated openly, without a clear path/coding framework in mind — typically in M.Sc.-level courses. Alternatively, you can try to go above and beyond when solving simple exercises.

For instance, we were once asked to model a toy ontology language in a programming language of our choice, and I modelled it in Coq , the proof assistant. I do think there is some value in me having published that solution on GitHub; if only for the reason that it raises my incentive to improve it when I can spare time.

Whether professors generally mind students publishing their solutions, is apparently highly culture-dependent. The other answers by D.W. and Joshua096 report on the default in their experience being yes , i.e., you should always ask professors before hand.

In contrast, in the German academic culture I experienced, the default was that you can share anything. In fact, our student council publicly collects old written/oral exam questions. And professors know this; some even recommend you to take a look at them. Rarely do they kindly ask you to not publish things, knowing they couldn't/wouldn't want to go down to legal path of forcing you anyway.

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The 8 Best Homework Apps to Help Students Stay on Track

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Whether you're a school student or a college student, homework is an essential part of the learning process. Fortunately, there are plenty of apps that can help you get your homework done, the only trouble is knowing which apps are best to download. If you're a student, read on to take a look at some of the best homework apps for Android and iPhone.

Do you need help with math, biology, history, or physics? Brainly is the homework app for you. Using the app for homework help is as straightforward as taking a photo, typing, or voice searching the question or equation and then waiting for an answer.

All the answers come from Brainly's online community of other students as well as experts from around the world. However, if you aren't happy with the answers, you also have the option to ask the app's AI tutor, Ginny.

Moreover, you can assist other students with their own homework by answering their questions. Which questions you help out with can be filtered according to school level and subject.

Download: Brainly for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

2. Photomath

Unlike Brainly, the Photomath app is a pretty straightforward homework app and has one single core focus—math. Photomath is truly one of the best apps to help you solve math problems , and it works similarly in that you merely have to scan the problem with your phone and the app gives you instant answers.

But Photomath doesn't stop there, the app actually breaks down the entire equation and gives you a step-by-step explanation of how it came to the solution. What's more, you can tap on each step to see an even more detailed animated lesson with voice instructions.

In addition, the Photomath app includes a built-in calculator where you can type the question out instead of snapping a photo.

Download: Photomath for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

3. Chegg Study

Chegg Study is an app that provides many different homework and study tools on various subjects. If you have a basic question, you can either snap a photo, upload an image, or type it out. On the other hand, you can just scan the barcode of the textbook you're using with your mobile phone to find answers.

Another tool Chegg Study includes is over 500 million free flashcards on subjects like astronomy, business, chemistry, and psychology. Alternatively, you can use the app to create your own set of flashcards.

But the Chegg Study app also comes in handy if you need help with a specific course. All you have to do is add the course and the app provides everything you need to ace it, like expert Q&A and exam prep. Alternatively, there are a selection of Chegg alternatives you can try , too.

Download: Chegg Study for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

4. Course Hero

To get help with your homework, all you have to do is ask Course Hero. And asking is super simple. You can type in your question, snap a picture, or upload a document. If you're looking for assistance with math homework, there's even a dedicated Scan to Calculate option.

Using the Course Hero app, you can keep a library of all your homework documents and any other learning materials you need if you're completing a course.

What's more, Course Hero is available in your web browser if you need access to AI-powered homework assistance and a range of study resources while using your laptop or PC.

Download: Course Hero for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

5. Bartleby

The Bartley app can solve your math homework problems in a single snap. Yet possibly the best part is the 24/7 homework help from actual tutors. Simply select the subject, type out the question, and add an optional image.

Once you've sent in your question, all you have to do is wait and pretty soon you'll get assistance from an expert with Masters or PhDs. However, there is another way to get homework help and that's by using the Search tab.

Type in what you're looking for, and you can filter through the solutions according to the solution type or subject. Alternatively, you can search for homework help based on the textbooks you're using.

Download: Bartleby for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

6. ScanSolve

Quick, uncomplicated, and to the point is what you can expect from this homework app. ScanSolve uses AI to answer your questions and covers subjects like math, English, and science.

As with many of the other apps on this list, using ScanSolve is as easy as taking a picture of the questions you are struggling with. From there, you can either read the explanation of the results or chat with the AI tutor if you're unsure of the answer you received.

Download: ScanSolve for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

7. Homework.ai

The Homework.ai app offers homework help using the power of artificial intelligence. Some of the subjects the app covers include art, biology, computer science, math, music, and a selection of languages like Spanish and German.

To get started, choose a subject, type out or audio record your question, and AI does the rest. For a quicker solution, you can simply scan the question using your mobile phone. Keep in mind that everything in the app is generated by AI, so you might need to double-check the answers if you're not 100% sure.

Along with answering your basic homework questions, Homework.ai can help you with language translation, rewriting text, and summarizing text.

Download: Homework.ai for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

8. Zookal Study

If you need homework help immediately, but you'd prefer to get it from an actual experienced tutor instead of AI, then Zookal Study is the app for you.

The best bit is that you won't have to wait hours for solutions to your questions—Zookal promises to deliver in as little as 20 minutes. Zookal keeps track of all your questions and answers, and you have access to a library of online solutions on the Zookal website.

The app centers on one main tool, Ask a Question, which is where you can type out or snap a picture of your homework question. Additionally, Zookal is a study app you can use in any browser with an impressive selection of online tools ranging from test prep and textbooks to flashcards and videos.

Download: Zookal Study for iOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

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Have you ever been stuck trying to handle your homework all by yourself? Well, you don't have to. Now, getting homework help is as easy as downloading one or a couple of mobile apps.

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Repitition and practice make perfect.

👍 handwriting 👎 typing / touch screens.

• 🔢 Multiplication Add Equations
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👤 Lewis Nakao

What is this?

A math homework generator that I initially wanted to be simple solution for my daughters.

I just wanted some simple equations for her to practice multiplication since I started teaching her.

Now it's become a mission to be something better or at least different from what else is out there.

I have discovered several other math homework generators, while some were very good, it didn't everything I wanted it to do. So I feel like I should continue to build upon it.

Author: Lewis Nakao

I am a software engineer in Hawaii.

Libraries Used: Font Awesome , Bootstrap, Twemoji.

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The 6 Best Homework Apps to Help Students (and Parents)

These apps won't do all the work for them

• New York Institute of Technology
• The Ultimate Guide to Parental Controls

Getting homework done can be difficult. While the information might make sense in the classroom , some students don't retain that knowledge. When your child needs extra help, there are apps to help with homework. These solutions help both students and parents succeed.

The apps in this article are free to download, and some may include in-app purchases .

Easy to use with over 30 languages to learn.

ESL courses to strengthen English skills.

The interface can be clunky at times.

It has a limited vocabulary.

This popular language-learning app sits at the top of both the iOS and Android app stores as an excellent solution to strengthen foreign language skills. Whether your child wants to learn outside of their curriculum or wishes to practice what they learned in class, Duolingo is an excellent addition to any digital device.

With over thirty languages to choose, your child can practice German, Italian, Spanish, French, or dozens of other languages. If your student is currently enrolled in ESL courses, they can strengthen their English skills from the bottom-up.

Unlike other language learning solutions that focus on memorizing vocabulary, Duolingo uses a combination of reading, writing, and speaking exercises to create a more natural learning experience.

Download For :

It's great for helping math students who fall behind.

The built-in calculator allows for smart, on-the-fly calculations and 2D graph plotting.

It's somewhat limited depth. Wrong answers don't provide much room for learning why an answer is incorrect.

Mathematics can be one of the most challenging courses for students, with complicated steps that are quickly forgotten after a long school day. Especially challenging is that many parents struggle to help their children with subject matter that they haven't been acquainted with for years. Photomath is an excellent solution for struggling mathematicians.

Children can scan complex or simple math problems, learning how to solve them with step-by-step instructions. A built-in calculator improves the experience, allowing for smart, on-the-fly calculations and 2D graph plotting abilities. Linear equations, logarithms, trigonometry, functions, and basic algebraic expressions are only a few of Photomath's vast capabilities.

Great music learning app with tools for learning and practicing guitar, bass, piano, and more.

Voice-overs and instructional design lack the human touch that helps when learning an instrument.

One school subject that is sadly overlooked is music. Music is an area of study that has been proven to increase a child's language and reasoning skills, fine-tune their motor skills, and decrease stress levels. So, if your child is trying to learn a musical instrument and struggling, consider investing in Yousician. This app allows students to practice guitar, bass, piano, or ukulele.

Students can practice their instruments along with the charts and diagrams that display on the screen. They'll receive real-time feedback when they miss a note or fall out of tune. Included step-by-step video tutorials are available to show your child how to be proficient in a specific skill set. Practicing an instrument has never seemed so natural. With different genres of music available, your child can quickly sort out their favorites.

Khan Academy

A range of subjects, from kindergarten mathematics to advanced placement physics.

More than 150,000 interactive exercises.

There's not much room for creativity, collaboration, or alternative teaching styles.

Ready to increase your knowledge in math, science, computing, history, economics, and more? Whether as an educational tool for your child, or an extra app for a parent to enjoy in their free time, everyone can use Khan Academy to unlock a world of education. Children can practice anything from kindergarten mathematics to advanced placement physics. Quickly access a collection of portable courses on-the-go or on your computer.

The Khan Academy app offers over 150,000 interactive exercises to strengthen old or new skills. Additionally, you can download content for offline study so that you have access to it no matter where you are. Parents wishing to learn something new can jump into advanced high school courses or enjoy courses on entrepreneurship and career-building. Khan Academy offers solutions for all ages and skill ranges.

Quizlet Flashcards

A digital flashcard mobile platform that's suitable for all ages.

The focus on memorization is ideal for studying.

The ad-supported platform may be distracting.

User-generated content means some content may be inaccurate.

Do you remember studying for exams and creating piles of flashcards to memorize facts and details? While flashcards can be an excellent method for analyzing new material, they use a large amount of paper that is eventually thrown in the trash. Learn new topics while also saving trees with the Quizlet Flashcards application. Study from existing flashcard sets or create your own.

Quizlet digital flashcards allow students of all ages to practice and excel at various topics using their smartphones. In addition to basic flashcards, Quizlet offers multiple modes to encourage different methods of memorization. If your child attends the same class as another student using Quizlet, the two can share flashcards. Those who use the app to study foreign languages can hear keywords spoken to them in over 18 languages.

PowerSchool

Allows parents and guardians to keep tabs on their child's education.

Access classroom handouts, attendance records, school bulletins, and more.

The complicated interface makes for a rather steep learning curve.

Here's an app that both children and parents can enjoy: PowerSchool Mobile. Many school districts use the PowerSchool system to manage grades and reports. If your child's school is a participant, you can use the mobile app to keep a close eye on your child's educational progress. Depending on how a teacher chooses to use the tool in their classroom, you may also have access to handouts, attendance records, school bulletins, and more.

While not every school offers support for the PowerSchool Mobile application, it is worth checking with your child's teacher to see if the option is available. Sorry kids, but it isn't possible to hide report cards with the PowerSchool app. Parents can manage what push and email notifications they receive from the child's school. You'll become more involved and aware of your child's school performance with this simple mobile app.

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About creating GitHub Apps

GitHub Apps let you build integrations to automate processes and extend GitHub's functionality.

In this article

About github apps.

A GitHub App is a type of integration that you can build to interact with and extend the functionality of GitHub. You can build a GitHub App to provide flexibility and reduce friction in your processes, without needing to sign in a user or create a service account.

Common use cases for GitHub Apps include:

• Automating tasks or background processes
• Supporting "Sign in with GitHub," which allows users to sign in with their GitHub account to provide their identity in your ecosystem
• As a developer tool, allowing users to work with GitHub by signing into your GitHub App, which can then act on their behalf
• Integrating your tool or external service with GitHub

Like OAuth apps, GitHub Apps use OAuth 2.0 and can act on behalf of a user. Unlike OAuth apps, GitHub Apps can also act independently of a user.

GitHub Apps can be installed directly on organizations and personal accounts and granted access to specific repositories. They come with built-in webhooks and narrow, specific permissions.

By default, only organization owners can manage the settings of GitHub Apps in an organization. To allow additional users to change the developer settings of GitHub Apps owned by the organization, an owner can grant them GitHub App manager permissions. GitHub App Managers can't manage third-party applications. For more information about adding and removing GitHub App managers in your organization, see " Roles in an organization ."

Building a GitHub App

In order to build a GitHub App, you first need to register a GitHub App. For more information, see " Registering a GitHub App ."

Then, you need to write code to add functionality to your GitHub App. You can use the credentials from your GitHub App registration to make authenticated requests to GitHub's APIs. For more information about writing code for your GitHub App, see " About writing code for a GitHub App ." For more information about making authenticated requests, see " About authentication with a GitHub App ."

Once you have written the code for your GitHub App, your app needs to run somewhere. If your app is a website or web app, you might host your app on a server like Azure App Service . If your app is a client-side app, it might run on a user's device.

In order to use your GitHub App, you must install the app on your organization or personal account. If your GitHub App is private, you can only install the GitHub App on the account that owns the app. If your GitHub App is public, other users and organizations can install your app. For more information, see " Installing your own GitHub App " and " Sharing your GitHub App ."

Understanding what type of GitHub App to build

There are multiple ways to design a GitHub App that you will want to consider, based on the functionality you want the app to have.

GitHub Apps that act on behalf of a user

If you want your app to take actions on behalf of a user, you should use a user access token for authentication. This type of request is sometimes called "user-to-server," and it means that the app will be limited by the permissions that have been given to the app as well as the user's permission. With this pattern, the user must authorize the app before the app can take action. For more information, see " Authenticating with a GitHub App on behalf of a user ."

Some examples of automations you could create with a GitHub App, where the app acts on a user's behalf, include:

• A GitHub App that uses GitHub as an identity provider for your ecosystem.
• A GitHub App that adds a service on top of GitHub.com that might be useful to a GitHub user. You can share the app with other developers via GitHub Marketplace or by making the app public.

GitHub Apps that act on their own behalf

If you want your app to take actions on behalf of itself, rather than a user, you should use an installation access token for authentication. This type of request is sometimes called "server-to-server," and it means that the app will be limited by the permissions that have been given to the app. For more information, see " Authenticating as a GitHub App installation ."

Some examples of automations you could create with a GitHub App, where the app acts on its own behalf, include:

• A GitHub App that uses webhooks to react to an event given a certain set of criteria. For example, you could create an automation around the REST API endpoints for reviewing requests for fine-grained personal access token that approves a request given a certain policy.
• A GitHub App that helps repository contributors. For example, the app could post helpful resources after a contributor creates a pull request or makes a comment.
• A GitHub App that generates short-lived tokens to give to other CI/CD tools, or to pull information from a repository.

GitHub Apps that respond to webhooks

If you want your app to respond to events on GitHub, your app should subscribe to webhooks. For example, you may want your app to leave a comment when a pull request is opened. For more information, see " Using webhooks with GitHub Apps ."

GitHub Apps that can take certain actions

When you set up your GitHub App, you can select specific permissions for the app. These permissions determine what the app can do via the GitHub API, what they can do on behalf of a signed in user, and what webhooks the app can receive. For more information, see " Choosing permissions for a GitHub App ."

Android Developer Fundamentals Course

Homework lesson 2.

This course has been updated!

This course is now deprecated and this content will be removed from this site soon. Please update your links.

Homework Assignments: Lesson 2

2.1: create and start activities, 2.2: the activity lifecycle and managing state, 2.3: start activities with implicit intents, build and run an app.

Open the HelloToast app that you created in the Make Your First Interactive UI lesson.

• Modify the toast button so that it launches a new activity to display the word "Hello!" and the current count, as shown below.

Answer these questions

What menu command do you use to add a new activity to your app?

What files are added when you add a new activity called HelloActivity to your app? What changes are made to existing files?

Which constructor method do you use to create a new explicit intent?

• new Intent()
• new Intent(Context context, Class<?> class)
• new Intent(String action, Uri uri)
• new Intent(String action)

How do you add the current value of the count to the intent?

• As the intent data
• As an intent action
• As an intent extra

How do you update the count in HelloActivity to display the current count?

• Get the intent the activity was launched with.
• Get the current count value out of the intent.
• Update the text view for the count.
• All of the above.

Submit your app for grading

Guidance for graders.

Check that the app has the following features:

• It displays the Hello button instead of the Hello Toast button.
• The HelloActivity starts when the Hello button is pressed, and the new activity displays the message "Hello!" and the current count from the main activity.
• The HelloActivity.java and activity_hello.xml files have been added to the project.
• The activity_hello.xml file contains two text view objects, one with the string Hello! and the second with the count.
• It includes an implementation of a click handler method for the Hello button (in MainActivity).
• It includes an implementation of the onCreate() method for the HelloActivity and updates the count TextView with the count from MainActivity.
• Create an app with a layout that holds a counter, a button to increment the counter, and an edit text. See the screenshot below as a sample. You don't have to precisely duplicate the layout.
• Add a click handler for the button that increments the counter.
• Run the app and increment the counter. Enter some text into the edit text.
• Rotate the device. Note that the counter is reset, but the contents of the edit text is not.
• Implement onSaveInstanceState() to save the current state of the app.
• Update onCreate() to restore the state of the app.

When you rotate the device (before you implement onSaveInstanceState() ), the counter is reset to 0 but the contents of the edit text is preserved. Why?

What Activity lifecycle methods are called when a device-configuration change (such as rotation) occurs?

When in the Activity lifecycle is onSaveInstanceState() called?

Which is the correct method signature for onSaveInstanceState() :

• void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState)
• void onSaveInstanceState()
• void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState, PersistableBundle outPersistentState)

What is the difference between restoring your activity state in onCreate() versus in onRestoreInstanceState() ?

If you quit and restart your app, what happens to the Activity state?

• It displays a counter, a button to increment that counter, and an edit text.
• Clicking the button increments the counter by 1.
• When the device is rotated, both the counter and edit text state are retained.
• The implementation of MainActivity.java uses the onSaveInstanceState() method to store the counter value.
• The implementation of onCreate() tests for the existence of the outState bundle. If that bundle exists, the counter value is restored and saved to the text view.

Open the ImplicitIntents app that you created in the Start Activities with Implicit Intents lesson.

• Add another button at the bottom of the screen.
• When the button is clicked, launch a camera app to take a picture. (You don't need to return the picture to the original app.) Note: If you use the Android emulator to test the camera, open the emulator configuration in the Android AVD manager, choose Advanced Settings, and then choose "Emulated" for both front and back cameras. Restart your emulator if necessary.

Which constructor method do you use to create an implicit intent to launch a camera app?

Which intent action do you use to request a camera app?

• It displays a "Take a Picture" button at the bottom of the app.
• When clicked, the button launches a camera app on the device.
• The on click method for the Take a Picture button ensures there is an available app on the device (with the resolveActivity() and getPackageManager() methods) before sending the intent.

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Cheat Codes: Students Search For Shortcuts as Virtual Schooling Expands

An eighth grader looks up answers on a cell phone while he is taking an online quiz at home. The pandemic has forced many Oklahoma school districts to shift to part-time or full-time online learning this year. (Whitney Bryen/Oklahoma Watch)

Computer programmer Gradyn Wursten still updates a project he created to hack his high school homework.

As a sophomore, he used an old MacBook with a cracked screen and bulging battery to write the code that adds shortcuts to Edgenuity — an online education platform used by more than   3 million students .

Once installed, his program can skip videos and automatically fill practice questions with answers — progressing straight to quizzes and tests.

Instead of watching a 30-minute history lesson on the Iroquois, students can cut right to the quiz. And those answers are often easily found on the web.

The hacks make it possible to complete a course much faster, students say.

Wursten is more computer savvy than most, but his quest for shortcuts is typical. His program, developed from his home in Heber City, Utah, has been downloaded 40,000 times by students across the country. In the past month, he gained 2,000 new users, including more than 100 in Oklahoma.

And his tool is just one of many available to savvy students.

Entire test keys and quiz answers are posted to homework help websites. Smartphone apps take a photo of a question and produce the answer. Students connect on social media or text groups to share answers. There are even tricks to fake attendance in a Zoom class — demonstrated by a teen’s viral Tik Tok video.

Schools’ large-scale shift to virtual education amid COVID-19 is challenging the system of determining what students actually know and limiting educators’ ability to ensure academic integrity.

Cheating has always been an issue in schools, but there is little getting in the way for students today. Shared answers have become even more accessible as districts have adopted or expanded their use of popular online learning programs like Edgenuity, which delivers the same content to students across the country.

Many schools adopted such virtual programs in a matter of months to adapt to the ongoing public health crisis. Seventy percent of Oklahoma districts had a virtual option at the start of this school year, and 7.5% were exclusively online, according to a state Department of Education   survey .

But when students are not inside classrooms, it becomes more difficult to ensure they are actually learning, teachers say.

“Everything my kids are doing at home is a cheatable assignment, which makes that in-class time so incredibly valuable,” said Elanna Dobbs, who teaches English at Edmond Memorial High School.

Edmond is using a blended schedule, where students attend class some days and are virtual from home the rest of the week.

Dobbs, who has been teaching 19 years, said on virtual days, she relies on class discussions or assignments that task students with providing individual thoughts on what they’ve learned. In other words, the type of assignments they can’t just Google.

Many students aren’t getting any in-person class time, though.

Virtual charter schools are experiencing a surge of enrollment, a trend underway before the pandemic. These schools don’t have classrooms and the students learn mostly from home. Epic Charter Schools says it has 61,000 students enrolled — representing about 1 in 10 Oklahoma students. Other statewide virtual charter schools are experiencing increases.

In virtual charter schools, teachers provide less direct instruction than in a traditional school, with the curriculum program delivering most of the lessons. Parents are expected to fill in the gaps and oversee the learning process.

Research shows it doesn’t work very well. Students enrolled full-time in virtual charter schools learned an equivalent of 72 days fewer in reading and 180 days fewer in math than students in brick-and-mortar schools over one academic year, according to a   2015 study   by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, a non-partisan research center at Stanford University.

Now, those same methods are being adopted by traditional school districts with the tens of thousands of Oklahoma students attending school from home.

And yet, critics — from parents to the president — have deemed online education inadequate. “Now that we have witnessed it on a large scale basis, and firsthand, Virtual Learning has proven to be TERRIBLE compared to In School, or On Campus, Learning,” President Donald Trump   tweeted July 10.

That month, in Norman, parents railed against a plan to use Edgenuity teachers for all students enrolling in the district’s virtual program. They spoke out at board meetings, and wrote a   letter to the district,   calling it “troubling” that Edgenuity was their only virtual option within the district.

“Our children deserve to have personal interactions with local teachers and classmates as part of their virtual school experience during this pandemic,” they wrote. They urged the district to, among other requests, provide an option for students to learn from Norman teachers, not from “an out-of-state, for-profit venture.”

The district relented and quickly developed an in-house virtual program, in addition to offering Edgenuity.

Relying on Teachers to Spot Discrepancies from Afar

Technology provides some cheating protections. Edgenuity features a locking browser, which restricts students from opening other tabs and programs while the learning platform is open. Epic and Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy say their teachers can require exams to be proctored, where the student is monitored remotely through a webcam.

Watch videos related to this reporting on Oklahoma Watch’s website.

Students can bypass these protections. Often, it’s no more difficult than pulling up answers on a smartphone. A   2018 study by Pew Research Center   found 95% of teens have a smartphone, or at least access to one. Even kindergarten students know how to ask a smart speaker their homework questions.

Yet the companies providing the lessons say it’s up to users to provide the accountability and prevent cheating.

“Edgenuity trusts the integrity of teachers, administrations, and even students themselves, to ensure that students learn and succeed fairly,” wrote Deborah Rayow, Edgenuity’s Vice President of Instructional Design & Learning Science, in response to Oklahoma Watch’s questions.

Edgenuity, an Arizona-based online curriculum company, is being used by at least some virtual students in Norman, Union, Stillwater and other school districts.

Another program, Exact Path, is being used in more than 400 Oklahoma districts. The state Education Department used CARES Act funds to enter into a $2.6 million contract with parent company, Edmentum, to offer   Exact Path free to districts . Exact Path is an online learning tool that can be used for assessment and instruction in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Districts are, in some cases, using Exact Path even when school is in-person, to make it easier to pivot to distance learning because of an outbreak or need to quarantine.

Edmentum says because Exact Path adapts to individual students, it is difficult to use online social networks to find answers. And the company works with popular homework help sites like Quizlet and Brainly to “ensure our content is not posted on their sites,” a spokesperson said.

Exact Path also alerts teachers to unusual behavior — such as answering too quickly.

LIke Edgenuity, Edmentum emphasizes teachers’ responsibility to prevent cheating.

One of the most effective things teachers can do to prevent cheating is to design their own online curriculum, or at least supplement the platform’s assignments with their own, said Derald Glover, assistant executive director of the Oklahoma Association of School Administrators.

The bare minimum schools should be doing this year is placing a student on a virtual school platform and letting them go, he said.  Additional safeguards teachers can add are class discussions via Zoom, or having students submit videos of themselves explaining their answers.

Glover said he’s encouraging educators to treat online tools as a digital textbook, and design virtual courses themselves.

But that takes time.

“We think it’s going to take most of this year to realistically build really rich teacher-developed (virtual) courses,” Glover said.

At-Home Learning Assumes Parents Can Supervise

Parents are showing little patience to wait. The fervor over inadequate education at home is growing, and the lack of teacher interaction is one of the main reasons.

Norman schools bent to parental pressure and transitioned to in-person school in late September, despite no change in the Cleveland County’s color-coded coronavirus risk designation.

A group of Stillwater parents filed a lawsuit against the district to force a return to classrooms. The district of 6,300 students uses Edgenuity for students who chose full-time virtual learning.

Parent Nicole Wisel wishes her children’s school district, Cimarron Public Schools, would return to paper, pencils and textbooks instead of using Edgenuity.

“We hate it,” said Wisel, who has children in seventh, eighth and 11th grades. “Our teachers are being paid to be proctors, and that’s it. They don’t even know what these kids are doing.”

The prerecorded video lessons are too long, she says, and one of her children, who is autistic, says the instructors in the videos are “creepy.”

Chuck Anglin, Cimarron Public Schools’ superintendent, said he likes to use Edgenuity to offer extra classes in a normal year. Choosing it for virtual learning this year was making “the best of a bad situation,” he said.

He agrees that when kids are learning from home, the onus to prevent cheating is mostly on parents.

“We are not programmed for distance learning,” said Anglin, whose school district is located 12 miles west of Enid. “We are programmed to have the kids there, where we can see their faces, we can read their eyes, we can tell if they are still engaged. We can see if they’re looking around to see if anybody’s watching while they’ve got their phone in their lap.”

Researchers at the National Education Policy Center, a research center at the University of Colorado Boulder, found that relying on a computer program to teach and assess is one of the most detrimental aspects of online education.

The researchers found these programs actually impede and marginalize the teacher’s role. “Teachers may be unable to see how their students earned the designation of mastery of a goal because in some applications, the software, not the teacher, determines questions asked and the grades assigned,” they wrote in a   2019 report .

They also found that students would just look up answers on their computers — in a separate browser or on a smartphone — while taking assessments. The students quickly realize a computer is easy to trick compared to a human teacher.

This is at the heart of the cheating issue. Are students spending school days engaged in live lessons with a local teacher who is crafting curriculum to meet their needs? Or are they watching videos that explain content and clicking through multiple choice questions?

Katie Harris teaches senior English at Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy, a statewide virtual school run by the national company K12, Inc. In her first year, students turned in a lot of plagiarized essays, she said. Now, she knows she has to rewrite her lessons, assignments, quizzes and tests every year.

“I say, ‘look, if I Google this exact writing prompt, I can find whole essays online. Don’t do that,’” she said.

K12 schools use their own virtual curriculum, not Edgenuity or Exact Path. A plagiarism detection service, Turnitin, automatically scans students’ work.

At Epic Charter Schools, the state’s largest virtual school, teachers can be responsible for students in all grades and subjects — and outside what they are certified to teach. Families can choose from more than a dozen learning platforms (Edgenuity and Exact Path among them), making it particularly difficult to supplement or build their own course.

To prevent cheating, Epic teachers proctor students’ benchmarking tests — in person, if possible, or via video conference, said Shelly Hickman, a spokeswoman for Epic. Teachers also can investigate if there are major discrepancies in a student’s scores on daily work compared to the proctored exams.

But Epic teachers are only   required to meet   with students face-to-face once every three weeks. Some teachers will meet more frequently, depending on the families’ needs.

Online Classes Create a ‘Psychological Distance’

Psychologists who study human behavior have found that most people will cheat — not a lot, but a little. Researcher Dan Ariely calls this the   “fudge factor.” 

Ariely, a professor at Duke University and author of the book   “The Honest Truth About Dishonesty,”   explains how and why cheating in online courses is easier than in a physical classroom.

“Gone are the quaint days of minutely lettered cheat sheets, formulas written on the underside of baseball cap bills, sweat-smeared key words on students’ palms. Now it’s just a student sitting alone at home, looking up answers online and simply filling them in,” he wrote in   this article   eight years ago, when virtual schools were still fairly new to Oklahoma.

He says the physical distance provided by online classes — distance from the teacher, the students, and the school building — creates a psychological distance that “allows people to further relax their moral standards.”

It’s also true that cheating exists on a continuum. Wursten, for instance, drew the line at automating quiz and test answers — the graded content.

Wursten, who graduated in 2019 and is now certified to work in IT, still adds features to his program — called Edgentweaks — as a “fun side project,” and because he wants to help other students avoid the drudgery he once faced.

Meanwhile, Edgenuity has patched his hacks in a virtual game of cat and mouse.

“I’ve found ways that I could automatically get the correct answers for things like tests and quizzes, but I did not actually write a tweak for it because I consider that cheating,” Wursten said. “I don’t intend to actually make a cheat tool.”

Even apps and websites created to assist students on their virtual learning path have been co-opted into cheat tools.

Brainly has a smartphone app that lets students scan homework or test questions, and answers pop up immediately. On Quizlet, another homework help website, entire test keys are posted and shared among students. Even pre-written essays are easily found, students say. Photomath, another app, produces not only the answer to a math problem, but all the steps needed for students to show their work.

Brainly and Quizlet have policies against cheating. But that’s unlikely to deter students, whether they are enrolled in a virtual school or are attending class face-to-face.

Mackenzie Snovel, who graduated from Owasso last year, said she found 90% of the answers for her senior English and history classes online — and even used Brainly to complete her final exam.

She said she didn’t see an issue with looking up answers because “they were classes I needed to graduate and none of that information I will need in my career.”

Technology is No Substitute

With students and teachers separated by distance, some of the academic integrity responsibility falls to the IT department.

They block websites known to be used for cheating. They may facilitate online exam proctoring, where students are monitored while taking a test through their webcam.

At Union Public Schools near Tulsa, the district has implemented several of these security measures but only on school-owned devices. Most students can easily access another device, though.

While Union is using Edgenuity for all middle and high school students who chose virtual this year, teachers will be adding in extra assignments to supplement the online tool, said Gart Morris, the district’s executive director of instructional technology.

“The curriculum in Edgenuity is limited,” he said. “Our own teachers are beefing up the curriculum to meet our standards.”

The district has about 2,700 middle and high school students who chose virtual learning this year. He believes the best tool to combat cheating is cementing the student to teacher relationships.

“It’s always a challenge to get one step ahead. There’s thousands of them and there’s not thousands of us,” Morris said. “You can look at technology in a way to try to prevent cheating but nothing works as well as a good solid relationship between students and an adult.”

Oklahoma Watch reporter Whitney Bryen contributed to this report.

This story is part of a collaboration with  Oklahoma Watch  through FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Jennifer Palmer , Oklahoma Watch

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Version 1.90 is now available! Read about the new features and fixes from May.

GitHub Copilot Extensions are all you need

June 24, 2024 by Isidor Nikolic, @isidorn

In 2017, Google researchers introduced the concept of transformers in their seminal paper, "Attention is All You Need" . These types of models, which prioritize information similarly to human focus, are the foundation of today’s modern language models, such as the ones that power GitHub Copilot.

The same way that transformers were transformative (sorry) for AI, we believe GitHub Copilot Extensions will ultimately deliver on the full promise of AI for developers.

VS Code is one of the most widely used developer tools in history. This popularity is largely due to the vast ecosystem of extensions that have been contributed by the community. If you’re a VS Code user, you can probably list right off the top of your head a handful of extensions that you cannot live without. Imagine the possibilities if those extensions would leverage the power of AI and GitHub Copilot.

The true power of AI is unlocked when it knows about your specific context. And VS Code has that knowledge. Extensions can use the VS Code API to harness this context and deliver the best, most relevant AI-driven answers and interactions right in VS Code where all the developers are already.

In this post, we’ll look at the new APIs that empower extensions to interact directly with Language Models and the Chat experience contributed by GitHub Copilot. We’ll look at how you can start building with these APIs today, and we’ll showcase a few early adopters that have started to take advantage of these APIs to enrich their extension.

Chat and Language Model APIs

This year at Build, we announced a new set of APIs for GitHub Copilot in VS Code:

Language Model API

Make sure to watch our Build session about Enhancing VS Code extensions with GitHub Copilot to learn all about these APIs.

You might be most familiar with using LLMs through a chat interface. One way for your extension to leverage the power of GitHub Copilot is to build a chat participant that users can interact with in the Chat view inside VS Code. You can create a chat participant with the Chat API , and use the Language Model API to process natural language and formulate a response to the user query. Learn more about the Chat API in our extension guide that uses a @cat code mentor as an example for the new API concepts.

With the Language Model API , you can now directly access and take advantage of large language models (or LLMs, for short) contributed by GitHub Copilot in your own extensions. Just select the model you want to use, build a prompt, and fire off a request to the chosen model. And by using the VS Code APIs, you can add the relevant context to the prompt. For example, by including the content of the current file or the technology stack being used.

The Language Model API can also be used to enhance the developer experience in all parts of the editor, not just the Chat view. You can contribute an action that uses the Language Model API to all the contributable surfaces of VS Code, such as the editor context menu. For example, the Source Control view uses the Language Model API to allow users to generate a commit message , based on source code changes. Another example is the Copilot-powered rename functionality, where the language model provides symbol rename suggestions based on the context of the code .

Learn more about the Language Model API in our extension guide.

We believe that the most delightful user experiences will arise from combining Chat and Language Model APIs with the robust suite of VS Code APIs. Extension authors should leverage these tools creatively, going beyond simple question-answer bots to develop rich, integrated interactions within VS Code that use the right user context. Users appreciate seamless and powerful interactions within their workflows. These new APIs enable extensions to boost their user’s productivity by integrating AI features directly into VS Code.

GitHub Apps

Alternatively, you can extend GitHub Copilot by creating a GitHub App that contributes a chat participant in the Chat view. A GitHub App is backed by a service and works across all GitHub Copilot surfaces, such as github.com, Visual Studio, or VS Code. GitHub Apps do not have full access to the VS Code API. To extend GitHub Copilot through a GitHub App, you should join the Copilot Partner Program .

We announced GitHub Copilot Extensions via GitHub Apps at the Microsoft Build conference, and we are already seeing some great extensions on the GitHub Marketplace .

Watch our Build session about extending GitHub Copilot to see it in action.

VS Code Extensions Showcase

We are excited to showcase what the VS Code extension community has built with the Language Model and Chat APIs. So far, we have seen over 100 extensions build on top of GitHub Copilot in a wide spectrum of scenarios. Here are some that we found particularly compelling.

Stripe enables developers to accept payments and move money online. The new @stripe chat participant brings the knowledge of Stripe’s documentation, code examples, and best practices to your fingertips, so you can build and maintain your Stripe integration without leaving VS Code.

“We’re constantly working to make it easier for developers to integrate Stripe, which is why we’re excited to extend Copilot with Stripe-specific context and functionality. The new extensibility APIs are well-crafted and easy to build on, so we were able to move very quickly.” - Ian McCrystal (EM, Stripe Developer AI team)

The @stripe participant helps you to:

• Generate and debug Stripe API code and insert it into your project
• Get answers to your questions, grounded in Stripe documentation
• Step through building and eventually upgrading your API integration

The @stripe participant will be available to all Stripe VS Code extension users by mid-July.

MongoDB developers love the MongoDB for VS Code extension that enables seamless data navigation, query building, prototyping with playgrounds, and exporting to popular languages. The @mongodb chat participant deeply integrates with the extension, enabling developers to leverage the powerful combination of GitHub Copilot and the extension to make application development with MongoDB even faster within VS Code.

The @mongodb chat participant:

• Generates MongoDB queries from natural language
• Offers insights into query performance and error patterns from database logs
• Provides database and collection schema information
• Answers questions directly in VS Code with references to the official documentation

If you are interested in using the MongoDB chat participant, you can sign up to get access to the private preview .

Parallels, the popular macOS virtualization software, recently unveiled a new Parallels Desktop VS Code extension to elevate the Parallels Desktop experience. They have improved it further by integrating with GitHub Copilot.

"Easy and Powerful APIs with good examples allowed us to quickly create a powerful copilot participant that would have otherwise required considerable effort and time.” – Carlos Lapao (Solutions Architect, Parallels)

Through the new @parallels chat participant, you can effortlessly execute most virtual machine operations using natural language. You can, for instance, say "@parallels start the Windows 11 VM" and have the chat participant act on your behalf.

PostgreSQL is an extremely popular relational database platform that you can now chat with directly by using the PostgreSQL Chat Participant extension. The @pg chat participant will learn your database schema and provide answers for you, grounded in the database schema. You can also use it to generate schema, get help on SQL queries, and even generate code for interacting with your database.

We are just getting started. As with all product initiatives in VS Code, we will expand our AI extensibility capabilities over time. We expect the following features to land later this year:

• Intent detection so chat participants are automatically invoked
• GPT-4o language model support
• Increased token limit for model requests (current limit is 4K tokens)
• Chat participants in editor inline chat, terminal and notebooks
• Variable Resolving API - allows extensions to contribute chat variables, which provide context from the extension's domain
• Tools API – converts natural language into tool calling with arguments; allow extensions to register tools that can be called by other participants

Available today to everyone!

Chat and Language Model APIs are available in VS Code Insiders today and will be in VS Code Stable at the start of July. It is easy to start building powerful AI extensions with our documentation and sample . If you questions or feedback, you can open an issue in our repository.

Already today, you can publish your extensions that depends on the Language Model and Chat API to the VS Marketplace. The real question is: what incredible extensions will you create? The possibilities are endless, and only you can bring these innovative ideas to life. So, dive into our great extension development flow, harness the power of AI with the right user context, and let your creativity shape the future of development! The building part is fun – go and enjoy yourself!

Isidor and the VS Code team