I have never understood why it is bad to ask for homework help

[elija]

So many forums, including this one, say that it is against our rules for you
to ask for help with Homework. I have never understood this.

Asking someone to do your homework? Well fair enough that should
probably be against the rules. Although it might be more fun if the rules
make it clear that in that situation, it's open season...

But don't we take part in forums like these to help people learn? Why is
it such a problem to help people learn when it is for homework?

[daark.child]

I also don't agree with an overall ban on homework questions, but I can see why some forums don't permit them. There is a tendency by some individuals to rely on forum members to spoon feed them or in some way do the homework for them without the individual doing their own research first.

[devils casper]

Most of the time Members just copy and paste Homework assignments here. Nobody gonna learn that way and we have to lock those threads.
We always encourage them to do it yourself and if anyone has any particular problem, we are here to help.
We can't just paste solutions here unless someone is willing to learn.

[elija]

Another forum - coding related, tends to give out complete, working
and hideously overcomplicated solutions with no explanation to
people who do that. I would love to be a fly on the wall when their
tutor asks them to explain it...

People there who ask for help and are willing to learn and show that
they had tried to understand, get good assistance and usually
very specific advice with a few extra references to look up.

But I agree, the lazy ones do spoil it

[devils casper]

We can't allow requests like 'Hey ! I dont have time, please solve it for me.'

Whenever anyone explain about what he/she has tried till now and what he/she couldn't understand, we keep those threads open.

[elija]

Cool.

Btw This wasn't meant as a suggestion, more as a topic for discussion

[MikeTbob]

I agree with devils_casper,
Telling someone the answer to a homework assignment does no good for anyone. They are in school to learn how to think for themselves, If all they do is copy and paste, then they haven't learned anything. I don't have a problem telling them where to look for answers, but blatantly giving out the answers should be against forum rules.

[oz]

The goal of this forum is to try and help real users with real computer issues.

Supplying answers to homework questions teaches a student nothing except that they themselves don't have to learn about their subject when they can go straight to a forum and ask for the solution from someone that already knows the answer. If we are going to have students filling computer tech positions, they need to study and comprehend their study materials so that they leave school knowing their stuff.

[elija]

As I said in my original post, I don't think that helping should be
precluded purely on the basis that the question is being asked
about homework. I do think that spoon feeding an answer is a
bad thing to do though.

A blanket ban on homework questions seems strange to me when
questions can be asked by people willing to make the effort. Even
if it is for their homework. The cut and paste merchants could probably
be better dealt with by a PM and a thread closing.

That way those who want to understand and follow rules won't
be put off posting their question

[oz]

If you go back and check all the homework question threads, you'll see that more than 99% of them are from new members, just signing up that day, and having only the one post. They are clearly here to get their homework solved and nothing more. They obviously don't bother to read the rules, or they wouldn't have posted their question in the first place.

Students are provided study materials, so they should use them. There are also plenty of resources on the web that a student can use to solve problems, without them having to ask someone to provide the answer. If all they have to do is ask someone else, why don't they simply ask their instructor for the answer?

The homework questions subject has come up many times on many forums including this one. So far, this thread has failed to bring up any new points.

Thanks for the feedback, though.