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1 #contractcheat ing Contract Cheating – Exploring The Online Market For Original Student Work Dr. Thomas Lancaster University of Wolverhampton Lunchtime Seminar Wednesday, 27 January 2016
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Contract Cheating – Exploring The Online Market For Original
Student WorkDr. Thomas Lancaster
University of Wolverhampton Lunchtime SeminarWednesday, 27 January 2016
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What’s Being Covered Today?
Why contract cheating is an issue – and why universities need to be vigilant in removing the opportunities for students to cheat
The online services that students are using to have their assessed work completed for them
Examples of visible student requests to outsource work across multiple disciplines, illustrating developments within our wider research
Practical steps that academics can take to reduce the likelihood and impact of contract cheating in their modules
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Discussion Welcome!
Twitter –@DrLancaster
Live – Feel free to join in and share ideas
#contractcheating
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Dr. Thomas LancasterSenior Lecturer in Computing at Birmingham City University, with specialism in Computer ScienceActive researcher into plagiarism and student cheating since 2000Recognised by the Higher Education Academy as a Senior FellowSome recent areas of focus have included “paid for” work within healthcare subjects and exam cheatingCurrently examining the marketing of cheating opportunities and the workers who help students to gain undue qualifications
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With Grateful Acknowledgement To My Colleague “Detective Bob”
Robert Clarke Educational Consultant and Researcher at SCLCurrent Visiting Lecturer at Birmingham City UniversityFormer Principal Lecturer with 30 years teaching experienceHas collected over 30,000 attempts made by students to outsource their work Has helped to reunite many “lost” assignment briefs with their owners
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buy nursing essay
15,300,000 results – as of January 2016
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buy law essay
56,600,000 results – as of January 2016
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Contract Cheating
Students who are using the online market for student work are committing contract cheating
Contract cheating happens when a student make use of a third party or other service to produce an original piece of assessed work which they then submit as if they had created itthis will not usually be detected as unoriginal through Turnitin
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Which Parties Are Concerned About Contract Cheating?
Parties andPlayers
TeachingStaff
Students
Professional Bodies
SolutionProviders
InternetDetectives
AdministrativeStaff
SoftwareProviders Government
Agencies
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“Student Cheating Crisis”
The Times – Saturday January 2, 2016
50,000 students from 129 UK universities caught cheating in the past three years, according to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The top 5 institutions for 2012-2015 were:1. Kent2. Westminster3. East London4. Sheffield Hallam5. Oxford Brookes
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Aside – Has Cheating Decreased?
The Independent on Sunday 11 March 2012 found that 45,000 students at 80 institutions had been found to have cheated in the previous three years(188 per institution per year then, 129 per institution per year now).
The top 5 institutions for 2010-2011 were:1. Greenwich2. London Metropolitan3. Sheffield Hallam4. Leeds Metropolitan5. Wolverhampton
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Forced Changed Practice In Australia(ongoing since late 2014)
MyMaster, (former) Australian based essay writing service – aimed at a Chinese audience
Records from the service and details of work they had completed became exposed
Generated over $160,000 (AUD) in 2014 – including over 700 deposits to MyMaster bank account
Has prompted new academic integrity policies and processes - see Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015 – and also led to funding opportunities
Video still from Sydney Morning Herald feature
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BBC Fake Britain
2000 word “essay” (computing literature review)2:1 standard requestedNeeded in a week (received in three days)£275
Awarded a mark of 65%
November 2015
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The Hidden World Of Contract Cheating
Most essay writing services keep their contents privateUsually students pay a set price per “page” and do not
know who their writer isAs researchers, we cannot easily observe what is going
on inside the sites
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Observable Sites
We can observe the interactions on agency web sitesPeople post the work that they want completed and solicit bids to have this work completed for themStudent work may or may not be an important part of
the business model for the agency site
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Cheating Can Become A Habit
Our first study, published in 2006, found that the “average” student using RentACoder.com had already posted between 4 and 7 assignments online at the time we did the study
Some students now never have their work attributed if it cannot be traced to an institution
(RentACoder since renamed and taken over by Freelancer.com – which is the main source for our current investigations)
Clarke, R and Lancaster, T (2006). Eliminating The Successor To Plagiarism? Identifying The Usage Of Contract Cheating Sites; 2nd Plagiarism: Prevention, Practice and Policy Conference 2006 - Newcastle, UK, June 2006.
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EssayBay Study Of 627 Assignment Requests
R European Langs, Lit & related
P Mass Comms and Documentation
W Creative Arts & Design
F Physical Sciences
K Architecture,Build & Plan
H Engineering
M Law
G Mathematical & Comp Sci
Q Linguistics, Classics & related
C Biological Sciences
X Education
B Subjects allied to Medicine
V Hist & Philosophical studies
L Social Studies
N Business & Admin studies
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2012), Dealing with Contract Cheating: A Question of Attribution, 1 st HEA STEM Conference April 2012, London, United Kingdom
Sample of 627 “all subject” cases collected on EssayBay over 5 months in 2010, and manually classified by UCAS Subject Category
EssayBay no longer operational, but this is an example of an agency site exclusively set up for student assignments
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January 2016
Recently, there has been a blurring between traditional essay writing services and agency web sites
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Some Examples Of Requests Observed On Freelancer.com
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Systems Engineering Technologies
6CC002 Systems Engineering TechnologiesMini-Project1 (USB)You will need to complete the workshop and submit report to WOLF topic along with your source code. You also need demo it on workshop session. It will be added into your final profile (20%).The demo deadline is 21th/Jan/2016. The report submission deadline for mini-Project is 14th/Jan/2016. Each member contribution to the project should be clearly identified in the report. The group mark will be moderated for each individual on the basis of contribution about each individual.
Freelancer 9339286Jan 2016 UK
£20 - £250project
budget range
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Dissertation“projects spread is a spread that can make a choice for what project i can choose”
Freelancer 8675590Oct 2015 "Cyprus Wolverhampton"
€900
(posted Tue, 30 Jun 2015)UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTONFaculty of Science and Engineering6CC009 – Advanced NetworksRESIT Coursework Assessment 2014-15
(posted Tue, 05 May 2015)UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTONFACULTY OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERINGUNDERGRADUATE COMPUTING SUBJECT6CI007 DATABASE SERVER MANAGEMENT
Also posted
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Experimental Pharamacology5PY016 Experimental PharmacologyPractical 1: Introduction to the isolated tissue preparation Introduction Pieces of tissue isolated from any animal, maintained in an aerated physiological solution at body temperature, will continue to respond in an appropriate manner to chemical, electrical or mechanical stimuli. These responses, depending on the tissue selected will continue for many hours and provide an excellent test system for the application of many drugs.
Freelancer 7255662Mar 2015 “Manchester, UK”
£154
known "third-party subcontractor"
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Corporate Governance in International Context
For this assignment, you are asked to conduct an empirical analysis on the link between board structure & composition, and firm performance, using a sample of UK listed companies.You are asked to work in teams of 4-5. Each team must select a sample of 30 UK listed companies from Morningstar Company Intelligence (available under Learning Centre, electronic databases). For each of the companies, you are asked to collate data for the following variables and input these into SPSS:1) Company size: Turnover, number of employees, 2) Company performance: ROCE, EPS, degree of internationalisation (% turnover derived from non-UK activities - from company facts report)
Freelancer 6109956June 2014 “Pakistan” $226
known "third-party subcontractor"
cancelled
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Engineering and Micro-electronics
5ET003 Assignment 2Module: Professional Engineering and the MicroelectronicsAssignment 2: MicroelectronicsAssignment Title:Embedded Systems Design and Development- Completing the design and development of an embedded system that uses PIC 16f88 microcontroller.Assignment brief:This assignment is concerned with the design and development of an embedded system using PIC16f88 microcontroller. It uses a fictitious case that proposes the design of an embedded system for monitoring and supervisory control of a greenhouse. Students should use the knowledge and skills they have gained in the Microelectronics module to complete the development of the proposed embedded system.
Freelancer 5237806Dec 2013“Ukraine”
$927
known "third-party subcontractor"
cancelled
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MBA assignmentModule Title: Accounting for Business Block 1Subject Area: Accounting and Financial Management Assessment Title: Company AnalysisAssignment Brief/Task You are to select a PLC that has a listing on the stock exchange and agree this with the module tutor. The assignment is in two parts. The first part requires you to produce an analysis of the company’s performance over the last two years from a prospective investors’ point of view (which should include investor ratios and non-financial information ). THIS WILL BE CHECKED FOR PLAGIARISM, HENCE THE ASSIGNMENT NEEDS TO CLEAR TURNITIN. Original assignment is attached.
Freelancer 4335219Mar 2013“Sri Lanka” $100
known "third-party subcontractor"
Closed
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Civil EngineeringModule Title: Commercial Management (Civils)Assessment 1 - PortfolioManaged Motorways are a new, technology driven approach to the use of our motorways.Managed Motorways:Help motorists make their journeys more safely and reliably • Support economic growth, by relieving congestion • Provide additional road capacity where needed • Cost less during construction • And have less impact on the environment than conventional motorway widening schemes Highways Agency (2011).
Freelancer 5470276Feb 2014“Salford” UK $100
known "third-party subcontractor"
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Interesting Development
Growth of third-party subcontractors, obtaining work elsewhere, then outsourcing it themselves through Freelancer.com
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Student Professionalism
Help students to understand the need for assessmentInstil an interest in the subject beyond assessmentEducate students about plagiarism, contract cheating and professional ethicsLink the assessment to employability – getting (and keeping) a jobInvolve students in the design of assessmentUse teamwork, where students cannot simply work on a task alone
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Use Supervised Assessments
(these do not have to be traditional written examinations)Workplace simulationsPractical testsTests using coursework as a baseSupervised reflectionSpoken examinationsCloze test (word replacement)
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Continue Good Practice For Assessment Design
Write fresh assessment briefs each timeIncorporate localised knowledgeUse Turnitin (for its factor of cheating deterrence)Check if already prepared solutions can be easily accessed on the InternetMonitor agency sites for assignment posts
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Look For Signs Of Ghostwriters
Made up personal experiences – or those that do not match the studentDocuments that are formatted and referenced perfectlyExtra low Turnitin scoresA focus on information from paper abstracts, or other freely available sourcesUS (instead of UK) English, international nursing practices and other non-localised examples
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Personal Communication From A US Writer For An Essay Company
(Used With Permission)
Feedback given by the student’s professor on the first draft:
“...as I read through your paper I was concerned with your wording use (i.e. parse, utilitarian, implicitly, semantics, ,etc.). Referring to your other assignment submissions, such wording use was surprisingly inconsistent from your other submissions. Thus, I look forward to such conscious use of wording in all of the rest of the assignments that you submit during this course. Also, while the only citation method that has been discussed throughout this class has been MLA, I found it quite interesting that your paper -- except for a few instances -- used what appears to be more of an APA style formatting. This APA style extends to some of your Works Cited listings as well.”
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The Solution?
“The paper I edited was a very verbose analysis of why students cheat, concluding rather ambiguously but leaning toward cheating being wrong. I got rid of anything with more than two syllables and concluded that cheating was OK.”
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But, Do UK Universities Really Want To Know?
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3810047 January 8 2016
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Selected References For Our Contract Cheating Work
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2015), Contract Cheating – The Outsourcing Of Assessed Student Work, in Handbook of Academic Integrity, Bretag, T. (editor): SpringerReference.Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2015),The Implications of Plagiarism and Contract Cheating for the Assessment of Database Modules. 13th International Workshop on Teaching,
Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2015), Birmingham, UK, July 2015.Hersey, C. and Lancaster, T. (2015), The Online Industry of Paper Mills, Contract Cheating Services, and Auction Sites, Clute Institute International Education Conference, London,
June 2015.Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014), An Observational Analysis Of The Range And Extent Of Contract Cheating From Online Courses Found On Agency Websites; 8th International
Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS 2014), Birmingham City University, UK, July 2014.Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014), An Initial Analysis Of The Contextual Information Available Within Auction Posts On Contract Cheating Agency Websites, 28th IEEE International
Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, University of Victoria, May 2014Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014), Using Turnitin As A Tool For Attribution In Cases Of Contract Cheating; 3rd Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, April 2014.Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2013). Commercial Aspects Of Contract Cheating; 8th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, University of
Kent, Canterbury, UK, July 2013.Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2012). Dealing With Contract Cheating: A Question Of Attribution; 1st Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics, Imperial College, London, April 2012.Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2010). Staff-Led Individualised Assessment – A Case Study; 11th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Information and Computer Sciences,
Durham University, August 2010.Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2008). How to Succeed at Cheating Without Really Trying: Five Top Tips for Successful Cheating; 9th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in
Information and Computer Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, August 2008.Clarke, R, and Lancaster, T (2007). Establishing a Systematic Six-Stage Process for Detecting Contract Cheating; The Second International Conference on Pervasive Computing and
Applications, Birmingham City University, July 2007. Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2007). Assessing Contract Cheating Through Auction Sites – A Computing Perspective; 8th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Information
and Computer Sciences, University of Southampton, August 2007.Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2007) The Phenomena of Contract Cheating, in Student Plagiarism in an Online World: Problems and solutions, Roberts, T. S. (editor), Hershey,
Pennsylvania, USA: Idea Group Inc.Clarke, R and Lancaster, T (2006). Eliminating The Successor To Plagiarism? Identifying The Usage Of Contract Cheating Sites; 2nd Plagiarism: Prevention, Practice and Policy
Conference 2006 - Newcastle, UK, June 2006.
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Upcoming Research Presentation
Contract Cheating And Academic Misconduct In Examinations And TestsHigher Education Academy STEM Conference 201628-29 January 2016East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham
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My Contact Details
Thomas Lancaster
Email: [email protected]: http://thomaslancaster.co.ukBlog: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blogLinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/thomaslancaster Twitter: @DrLancaster
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Contract Cheating Resources
General Resources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_cheatinghttp://contractcheating.com
Contract Cheating Special Interest Group (originally supported by the Higher Education Academy):https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=CONTRACTCHEATING
Slides Available At:http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster
