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An Observational Analysis Of The Range And Extent Of Contract Cheating From Online

Courses Found On Agency Websites

Thomas Lancaster and Robert ClarkeBirmingham City University

CISIS 2014

#contractcheating

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Background

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Experiences Of Plagiarism And Contract Cheating

Dr. Thomas Lancaster

Senior Lecturer in ComputingPhD “Effective And Efficient Plagiarism Detection”Programme Leader BSc Computer ScienceLead of Innovations in Computing Education Group at Birmingham City University

Robert Clarke

Educational ConsultantCurrent Visiting Lecturer/Former Principal Lecturer at Birmingham City University30 Years Experience Teaching19,000 Attempts at Contract Cheating Found

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Contract Cheating

Contract cheating occurs when a students pays (or otherwise uses) a third party to provide an original solution for assessed work for them

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Contract Cheating Does Happen

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 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.”

“The Secret World Of Cheaters” WNCT 9http://www.wnct.com/story/25468950/secret-world-of-cheaters

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Contract Cheating And Online Courses

Contract cheating is an issue for all courses, but when students are taught face-to-face, mechanisms to prevent them contract cheating existThe growth of studying through online courses poses new challenges for academics

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The Transtutors Agency Site

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Transtutors“Internet’s Leading Academic Q&A Bank”

Multiple “services” offered to “help” students

Online tutoringHomework helpQuestion and answersAssignment help

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http://transtutors.pissedconsumer.com/got-my-homework-done-with-in-6-hr-20131122459189.html

Might Be Worthwhile?

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“300 Courses From 100 Colleges Currently In Question Bank”

Transtutors sells pre-written solutions organised by college and course

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Bespoke Solutions May Be Commissioned

Athabasca UniversityCanada

FNCE 370v8 Accounting

Request From Student

SolutionProduced

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An Unusual Feature For A Contract Cheating Site

Most agency sites only share the produced work with student who originally paid for it

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Wide Range Of Subjects Covered

Indira Gandhi National OUIndia

LSE-03BSc GENETICS

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Range Of Academic Levels

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Assignments From Partner Institutions

University of Derby

Module

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“Open University” Search

Multiple hits on Google

Shared modules codes can make attribution harder

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Online University Work Found On Transtutors

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Data Collection

A sample of 174 assignments from Transtutors was collected and analysedAll assignments were manually checked and were from

identifiable courses that were known to be taught online

Assignments from courses taught online by 17 different institutions were found

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Source Institution Country of Origin Of 174 Assignments

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Analysis By Subject Area Of 174 Assignments Found On Transtutors

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The Number Of Different Institutions Per Country Found From Sample Of

174 Assignments

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Observations And Recommendations

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Contract Cheating Does Represent A Problem For Online

CoursesThe analysis of the sample data collected, combined with the experiences of detectives looking for contract cheating, suggests that contract cheating is devaluing awards from online institutionsThe growth of the uptake of MOOCs awarding academic credit adds a further complication which needs to be addressed

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Detection Opportunities

Need to develop automated methods to gather information from agency websites and attribute source institutions and studentsCan use watermarking to aid in traceability of assignments found online by contract cheating detectivesStylometric techniques, developed to identify work not written by the student to which it has been attributed, show initial promiseThe availability of the work produced for purchase by multiple parties provides additional research and detection opportunities

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“Times Higher Education” Lead Story

(10 October 2013)“The damage contract cheating can inflict on

society is clear. Graduates emerge from university with huge (and in some disciplines, potentially dangerous) gaps in their learning and knowledge.”

Academics should aim to ensure that students understand the value of completing their own workContinued work to develop appropriate assessment mechanisms for online and face-to-face courses to ensure that students do have the skills required by industry are necessary http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/essay-

mills-university-course-work-to-order/3/2007934.article

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Further Resources

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For More Information

Thomas Lancaster:http://thomaslancaster.co.ukthomas.lancaster@bcu.ac.uk

Robert Clarke:robert.clarke@bcu.ac.uk

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

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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.