Contract Cheating In 2014 - What Can The Computing Community Do? University of Sheffield - 20 May...

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Contract Cheating In 2014What Online Cheating Is Happening Today & What

Can The Computing Community Do About It?

Dr. Thomas LancasterUniversity of SheffieldTuesday, 20 May 2014

https://twitter.com/DrLancaster

http://slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster

http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/


A Bit Of Background





What’s Being Covered?

A look at the world in which students are paying (or using) third parties to help them complete their course!

Based around selected highlights of research within the Innovations in Computing Education group at Birmingham City University, current news stories and observations of the wider cheating and plagiarism landscape

Intention is engage in discussion about what can be done at the University of Sheffield to reduce the opportunities for (and impact of) contract cheating





Discussion Welcome!

Twitter -

Live – Feel free to join in and share ideas

#contractcheating




https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=#contractcheating


My Background

Dr. Thomas LancasterSenior Lecturer in ComputingActing Associate Head of School of Computing, Telecommunications and NetworksProgramme Leader BSc Computer ScienceSenior Fellow of the Higher Education AcademyPhD “Effective And Efficient Plagiarism Detection” from London South Bank UniversityLeader of Innovations in Computing Education Group





A Nod To My Colleague “Detective Bob”

Robert Clarke Educational Consultant and Researcher at SCLCurrent Visiting LecturerFormer Principal Lecturer30 Years Experience Teaching At Birmingham City UniversityHas collected over 19,000 attempts at Contract CheatingAn expert in “Multi-Dimensional Sudoku”





Why Do Universities Care About Cheating?





The Publicity?

Sheffield Star, January 2010http://www.thestar.co.uk/what-s-on/out-about/cheat-list-shame-for-university-students-1-311090

http://www.thestar.co.uk/what-s-on/out-about/cheat-list-shame-for-university-students-1-311090







Turning Out People Who Can’t Do Their Job?

“this a assignment for do shielding for fast reactor i need the materials, shape, attenuation coefficient and size of the shielding and dose analysis around the reactor. this for health physics or nuclear engineering”

Do you want to live within 5 miles

of this person?





Disadvantaging “Honest” Students?

“Would you like to go for a job and be pipped to the post by someone who cheated in their degree?”Robert Clarke, Birmingham City University

When Essays For Sale Become Contract Cheating, November 2012http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20298237

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20298237






How Easy Is It To Get Started With Contract Cheating?





“PMs Offering To Help You Cheat!” (December

2013)

http://www.postgraduateforum.com/thread-29353







How About Contracting A PhD?





Other Sources Of Contract Cheating





Contract Cheating

Contract cheating occurs when a student uses a third party to produce an original piece of assessed work for them





Can We Detect Contract Cheating?





This Happened In Florida

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/local-6-confronts-man-helping-students-cheat-for-cash/25825182

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/local-6-confronts-man-helping-students-cheat-for-cash/25825182





“Local 6 News” Sting Operation

Writer found on local classified site$95 payment for a seven page finals paper in May 2014Writer says he earns around $1000 per month for writing 40 papersHired by both students and their parentsEssay not detected as unoriginal by Turnitin





Cheating Happens!





“The Secret World Of Cheaters” WNCT 9

Anonymous survey in May 2014 of 180 students at East Carolina University.15 out of 180 (8.33%) had paid someone else to do their work for them18 out of 180 (10%) had been paid by other students to do work for them

“I’ve done it. And I’ve passed. I kind of spend my time downtown. I don't study. All these kids in the library, it's easy. If they want a quick extra buck or two, I’m like hey man, write this paper for me.”

http://www.wnct.com/story/25468950/secret-world-of-cheaters







UK Students Largely Willing To Cheat

Contract Cheating was mathematically modelled by researchers at Manchester University using the Choice Experiment (CE) Method90 2nd/3rd students at three universities were confidentially asked to consider paying to have upcoming assignment produced for themOver 50% expressed willingness to commit contract cheating depending on expected grade, risk of being caught, penalty posed and the price

Rigby, D., Balcombe, K., Burton, M., Bateman. I. and Mulatu, A. (2011), Eliciting The Illicit: Choosing To Cheat, International Choice Modelling Conference 2011, Leeds, July 2011





The Roots Of Our Research





“Observable” Contract Cheating

RentACoder.com was an “agency site”, primarily for computing tasks, where people could place up jobs they needed completing and other people would bid to complete the work for them.

The “average” student posted between 4-7 assignments before their cheating was attributed

(RentACoder since renamed and taken over by Freelancer.com)





How This Was Reported In 2006

Times Higher Education, 16 June 2006http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/todays-news/203722.article

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/todays-news/203722.article







Typical Computing Assignment On Freelancer.com

Observed on 14 May 2014





Most Of The Time, It’s Not This Easy!





Current Database Of “Observable” Contract

Cheating

18,729 detected items between March 2005 and June 201316,626 out of 18,729 from Freelancer.com (or incorporated sites)Easiest to searchProvide plenty of details of users to aid attributionCertain users are actively tracked





Freelancer.com Knows About Assignment Use

Matt Barrie from Freelancer.com – Getting Results From Crowdsourcing (2010 Talk)http://www.slideshare.net/TheInsightExchange/matt-barrie-freelancercom-getting-results-from-crowdsourcing

http://www.slideshare.net/TheInsightExchange/matt-barrie-freelancercom-getting-results-from-crowdsourcing







Computing Assignments On RentACoder.com

(Sample of 910 Computing cases collected between Mar 2004 and December 2006)





Typical Manual Detective Success Rate

AssignmentsPosted

SourceAttributed

StudentIdentified

1 in 3 postings detected

1 in 3attributed

1 in 3students found

1 in 27 cheaters

dealt with





Contract Cheating Observations





Posted By An Intermediary Contractor

Traced through details in attached file

Could the chances of identifying the student be improved if the data set attached to posting

was individualised?





Some Assignments Are A Distraction!

Some staff put a lot of effort into designing

interesting and challenging assignments

Sometimes they are so interesting that Bob gets distracted from the task

of cheating cheaters!





Source Traced Using Turnitin

Turnitin can be used to match assignment briefs

and subsequently identify the source institutionA 16% match on Turnitin was

enough to attribute the source





Open Contract Cheating Questions





What Can We Do About Automated Detection?

No one yet has made a serious attempt at automating detection, although solutions have been proposedAutomated monitoring and scraping of agency sitesArtificial Intelligence techniques to classify whether an

auction is student work or notAnalyse and track student writing/programming styles

(stylometrics)





How Can We Make Contract Cheating

Attributable?

Can we develop a national/international database of assignments briefs?How far will individualised assignments help to identify individual students?Do we need individual academics to take control for monitoring for their own assignment briefs?





Are We Setting The Right Assignments?

Can we develop assignments that are not susceptible to contract cheating?Are exams, practical tests, viva voces appropriate within Computing?





Can We Rely On The Honesty Of Other

Students?

Harvard To Adopt Student Honesty Pledge, BBC News, 9 May 2014http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27326404








Are We Clear That Contract Cheating Is An

Offence?

https://www.shef.ac.uk/physics/teaching/new_students/cheating







Can We Make The Penalties Fit The Crime?

“Indian press reports claim one student from the subcontinent was recently deported from the US after all his assignments were found to have been outsourced.”

“Aspiring IT Pros Caught Contract Cheating, The Contractor, 2006http://www.contractoruk.com/news/002733.html

http://www.contractoruk.com/news/002733.html







Are We Open With Students About Contract

Cheating?Do our students understand that their lecturers use the same technologies as they do?Do they see the value of completing their own work for their future employment?How can we work with our students as partners in our exploration of this issue?





Cheating Continues To Evolve…





A Future Cheating Scenario?

http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Stephen+Hume+There+many+definitions+cheating/9828845/story.html

“Student One crams until 4 a.m., then falls asleep, exhausted. Three hours later, it’s up for a quick shower, then off to write the 9 a.m. exam with bloodshot eyes, a headache and the nagging feeling of having arms and legs that are about to float away which comes with not enough sleep.Student Two, on the other hand, has prescription medicine that is a powerful stimulant. This student powers through the night and shows up feeling fresh, alert and full of energy, totally focused on the material studied overnight.Is Student Two cheating; obtaining an unfair advantage over Student One with a legally-prescribed drug that enhances performance during the examination?”








And Continues Into The Workplace…

(Requested For The Same Person)Systems Development paperSelect a sample system for development that would benefit a business of your choice. Prepare a plan for determining the feasibility of the systems development. Present and explain both business and system planning documents and/or templates that allows you to state the objectives, goals and tactics. Explain how they are used and show examples. Please comment on how you would present risks and mitigation strategies to users

DB helpI need help with an exisiting database form. The form needs to be searchable by patient name. And the follow-up visits section shows 3 slots they would rather have one that shows ALL the follow-up visits. Let me know if more info is needed. The database information is CONFIDENTIAL. Thanks

1600 “live” oncology records from hospital in

California





Further Resources





References For Our Contract Cheating Work

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 2014

Lancaster, 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.





For More Information

General Resources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_cheatinghttp://contractcheating.com

Contract Cheating Special Interest Group (supported by the Higher Education Academy):https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=CONTRACTCHEATING

Slides Available At:http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster

Contact Me At:[email protected]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_cheating

http://contractcheating.com/

https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=CONTRACTCHEATING

http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster

http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster

mailto:[email protected]




Contract Cheating In 2014 - What Can The Computing Community Do? University of Sheffield - 20 May...

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