Experience using "MOSS" to detect cheating on programming assignments

Program assignments are traditionally an area of serious concern in maintaining the integrity of the educational process. Systematic inspection of all solutions for possible plagiarism has generally required unrealistic amounts of time and effort. The "Measure Of Software Similarity" tool developed by Alex Aiken at UC Berkeley makes it possible to objectively and automatically check all solutions for evidence of plagiarism. The authors have used MOSS in several large sections of a C programming course (MOSS can also handle a variety of other languages). They feel that MOSS is a major innovation for faculty who teach programming and recommend that it be used routinely to screen for plagiarism.