winning the contract cheating battle - university of sheffield - 2 december 2014
TRANSCRIPT
1ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Winning The Contract Cheating Battle
Dr. Thomas Lancaster
University of Sheffield
Tuesday, 2 December 2014
3ThomasLancaster.co.uk
What’s Being Covered Today?
General background to Contract Cheating, with specific application to academic integrity within the Engineering discipline
Consider relevant examples and the practical steps that academics can take when developing assessments and engaging in professional practice
The intention is to help academia take control of the “contract cheating battle”
4ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Discussion Welcome!
Twitter -
Live – Feel free to join in and share ideas
#contractcheating
5ThomasLancaster.co.uk
My Background
Dr. Thomas LancasterSenior Lecturer in Computing at Birmingham City University
Programme Leader BSc Computer Science and MSci Mathematics
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Active researcher in the plagiarism and cheating fields since 2000
PhD “Effective And Efficient Plagiarism Detection” from London South Bank University
6ThomasLancaster.co.uk
With Acknowledgement To My Colleague “Detective Bob”
Robert Clarke Educational Consultant and Researcher at SCL
Current Visiting Lecturer
Former Principal Lecturer
30 Years Experience Teaching At Birmingham City University
Has collected over 25,000 attempts at Contract Cheating
An expert in “Multi-Dimensional Sudoku”
8ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Why Are We Still Not Winning?
Blog Post from 2012
http://blogs.heacademy.ac.uk/stem/2012/05/25/why-arent-we-winning-the-contract-cheating-battle/
9ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Our Work On Contract Cheating Predates This
Times Higher Education, 16 June 2006http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/todays-news/203722.article
Media ArticleFrom 2006
10ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Not A Secret In The 1990s
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=CRS19950531.2.2
Student Media ArticleFrom 1995
12ThomasLancaster.co.uk
“Research Assistance” Then
Firm quoted in the story said to have been providing students with “assistance” across the USA since the 1960s.
“’We take almost everything,’ said an employee of Research Assistance.”
Observation From Student Taking Courses In 1998
“Class would be at 9 a.m. Papers were promised for before class, and students would wait on the front steps of the building. The guy would come and call [the students'] names, handing out papers in front of the building!”
13ThomasLancaster.co.uk
“Research Assistance” Now
http://research-assistance.com/essays/
Website AdvertisingIn 2014
16ThomasLancaster.co.uk
#unicheating
https://twitter.com/AmyMcNeilage
17ThomasLancaster.co.uk
“Thousands” Of Students In Sydney Caught Outsourcing Work
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/students-enlist-mymaster-website-to-write-essays-assignments-20141111-11k0xg.html
“A Fairfax Media investigation has uncovered a sophisticated online business, which has produced thousands of university assignments and turned over hundreds of thousands of dollars since it began operating in May 2012.”
18ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Scale Of The Problem
“Fairfax Media has seen 700 receipts for direct deposits to the MyMaster bank account, totalling more than $160,000 this year alone - a conservative estimate of the company's annual income, as students can also pay by cash or PayPal.”
“Almost 1000 assignments produced this year for students studying courses as diverse as philosophy, economics, law, engineering, astronomy and marketing.”
“MyMaster customers have paid for business reports, speeches, powerpointpresentations and the completion of online tests, and requests range from short homework tasks to comprehensive research assignments.”
21ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Contract Cheating
Contract cheating occurs when a student uses a third party to produce an original piece of assessed work which they then submit as if they had created itThis might be through using an essay writing service or
a personal tutor
Because contract cheating provides original work, it will not usually be detected through Turnitin
23ThomasLancaster.co.uk
“Observable” Contract Cheating Using Agency Sites
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.
Our first study, published in 2006, found that the “average” student posted between 4 and 7 assignments online before their cheating was attributed
(RentACoder since renamed and taken over by Freelancer.com)
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.
24ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Typical Microelectronics Assignment On Freelancer.com
Observed on 21 November 2014
26ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Mechanical Engineering Assignment On Freelancer.com
Observed on 21 November 2014
28ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Some Other “Engineering” Work Available On First Page Of Results
Chemical Engineering Problems to be Solved
Chemical Engineering - ASPEN PLUS
Engineering Vibration Coursework Proposal writing for a Civil Engineering project
Math Calculus and Engineering Math system design and software engineering
Topic for computer Engineering thesis Mech. Engineering- Solid Works
Engineering Discipline Report Engineering Report Urgent
77 results from Freelancer.com search for “engineering” on 21 November 2014
29ThomasLancaster.co.uk
The Real Dangers Of Contract Cheating In Engineering
“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”
30ThomasLancaster.co.uk
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
32ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Current Database Of “Observable” Contract Cheating
25,679 detected items between July 2006 and October 2014
Vast majority from freelancer.com (or incorporated sites)
Easiest to search
Provide plenty of details of users to aid attribution
Certain users are actively tracked
33ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Postings By Agency (July 2006 to October 2014)
29
110
190
216
294
725
1342
5468
17305
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000
Odesk
Other
Transtutors
LivePerson
ScriptLance
EssayBay
GetACoder
Rentacoder
Freelancer
34ThomasLancaster.co.uk
EssayBay Study Of 627 Assignment Requests
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
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
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2012), Dealing with Contract Cheating: A Question of Attribution, 1st 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
35ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Level Of EssayBay Work
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
International Bacc
PhD ?
GNVQ
Advanced Placement
PhD
High Sch
GCSE A/A2
Masters
Undergraduate
Postings by level
36ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Transtutors Study Of 174 Requests For Academic Help
Sample of 174 “all subject” bespoke assignment requests from courses taught online at 17 different institutions.
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), BirminghamCity University, UK, July 2014.
37ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Contract Cheating Can Involve A Large Cast Of Characters
Student Agency Site
Essay Mill Site
Worker
IntermediaryContractor
The student may “outsource” the work direct to the agency or indirectly through a essay-mill site or intermediary contractor
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.
38ThomasLancaster.co.uk
What Can We Do To Win The Contract Cheating Battle?
39ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Focus On Prevention
Use assessment types that are not susceptible to “paid for” solutionsVivas
Exams
Practical Tests
Linked Coursework and Tests
Teamwork Assessments
Localised Knowledge
Reflective Analysis
40ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Focus On Detection
Collect work electronically and run through Turnitin
Can still identify “trace elements” of contract cheating
Always provides elements of deterrence
Automatically monitor agency and online sitesCan use Google Alert
Introduce unusual terminology/spellings
41ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Focus On Student Integrity
Infer a sense of ownership of work
Educate students on plagiarism and contract cheating
Provide a “safe environment” for students to voice concerns
42ThomasLancaster.co.uk
“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 work
Continued work is necessary to develop appropriate assessment mechanisms to ensure that students do have the skills required by industry
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/essay-mills-university-course-work-to-order/3/2007934.article
43ThomasLancaster.co.uk
Are Exams The Answer?
http://joshmaymedia.com/whiteWeasel/index.html
45ThomasLancaster.co.uk
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. (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 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.
46ThomasLancaster.co.uk
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: [email protected]: @DrLancaster