Merge pull request #776 from ossf/academic-use

Add lab documentation section on academic cheating

Author: david-a-wheeler

docs/labs/create_checker.md

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ The main sections are:
   [Debugging](#debugging))
 * [Localization](#localization) (aka translation)
 * [Submitting a new or updated lab](#submitting-a-new-or-updated-lab)
+* [Academic use](#academic-use)
 * [Potential future directions](#potential-future-directions)
 
 ## Introduction
@@ -751,6 +752,31 @@ under the `docs/labs` directory.
 Simply fork the repository, add your proposed lab in the `docs/labs` directory,
 and create a pull request.
 
+## Academic use
+
+These labs were created for LFD121. However, they can (and are) also used
+for other situations, such as for academic use.
+We welcome those other uses! This does raise the issue of countering cheating.
+
+We can't prevent all cheating. The answers can be shared among students,
+and answers are visible to those who look at its source.
+In addition, some learners may be unable to figure out the answer, so we
+provide a "give up" button.
+
+However, cheating is fundamentally a lazy approach, and we take steps to
+address this.
+The "give up" button has a timer, so people can't load the page and
+*immediately* give up to see the answer.
+When a lab is completed, that is clearly indicated at the bottom.
+In English this stamp has the word "Completed" at the bottom.
+After that, it has a datetime of the completion time, followed
+by a random unique value (a UUID).
+That is followed by `(GA)` if the learner gave up in this session.
+If two learners have the same random value, then a single lab
+session being claimed by more than one learner (thus, there was cheating).
+This doesn't detect all cheating, but it does provide a way to detect
+some kinds of cheating.
+
 ## Potential future directions
 
 Below are notes about potential future directions.