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A Decade Of Contract Cheating
Examining The Changes That Have Been Made To The Marketplace For Bespoke Essays
Presented by Dr. Thomas Lancasterat Coventry University Conferenceon Thursday, 23 June 2016
http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
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What The Hey Is This “So-Called” Contract Cheating… And Is It Really A Problem?
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(Informal) Definition
Contract cheating occurs when a student uses a third party to produce original academic work for themUsually, contract cheating involves
money changing hands
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What Does Google Think?
This is what Google (UK) will suggest to you if you are a student looking for help writing your essay
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The 10 Year Focus For This SessionThis presentation looks at a decade of developments within the contract cheating industry
Not strictly a research presentation, but this is informed by 10(+) years of researchParticular focus on the underlying market trends which are changing the access that students have to ghostwriting services
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Your Involvement Is Encouraged!
Twitter Post comments, quotes, photos, discussion topics#contractcheating#CUcbf@DrLancaster
Live Please join in the discussion, ask questions and contribute stories
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Dr. Thomas LancasterHave researched the issues surrounding student plagiarism, contract cheating and academic integrity since January 2000Joined Coventry University as Principal Lecturer/Associate Head of School (Marketing and Recruitment) in May 2016Primary academic disciplines are Computer Science and MathematicsMain contributions to teaching include student employability, entrepreneurship, social media marketing and providing staff development opportunitiesSenior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
BBC South East Today– BBC1
Dispatches – Channel 4
Fake Britain – BBC1
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Is It Cheating, Is It Business Or Is It Entrepreneurship?
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With Thanks To “Detective Bob”
Robert Clarke
Educational Consultant and Researcher at SCLCurrent Visiting Lecturer at Birmingham City UniversityFormer Principal Lecturer with 30 years teaching experienceEnjoys using his free time trying to alert academics when students try to request other people online to complete assessed work for that studentBob has collected over 30,000 attempts made by students wanting to cheat
BBC News at Six – BBC1
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What I Got Up To On The Way To Monday, 19 June 2006
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A Few Days Earlier – The Start of a Decade of Media Interest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5071886.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1521115/Cheating-students-put-assignments-out-to-tender-on-the-internet.html
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The Original Paper
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228367576_Eliminating_the_successor_to_plagiarism_Identifying_the_usage_of_contract_cheating_sites
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As seen on Rentacoder.com(now Freelancer.com)
Contract cheating example used in original 2006 presentation slides
“this is collage project. its about E-COMMERCE B 2C RETAILING SYSTEM FOR A NUTRITIONAL PRODUCT SALES COMPANY.
the time frame is 1 month. if you can finish this in less than 1 month. that would be great.
this is collage project only....it no need to be really good design. as long meet the requirment is fine but the web design layout should be nice.
thanks in advance.”
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15 Workers From Around The Globe Competed To Be Awarded The Opportunity To Work On The Assignment
Bidder Bid (USD) Bidder Stated Location
mfavw 85.00 Egypt
farhadcoders 93.50 Pakistan
outsource2win 126.65 Nepal
noorwebcrea 127.50 United States
rd170 127.50 United Kingdom
sharekhs 127.50 India
shreeinfosystems 127.50 India
inadilemma 144.50 Australia
perfectron 148.75 India
futureforce 153.00 India
adsystemsl 170.00 Afghanistan
livemist 170.00 Philippines
logicexpertvw 170.00 India
meghanivas143 170.00 India
vw1638062vw 170.00 India
average bid = $140.76
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Essay Mills– A Decade Ago And Today
June 2006 June 2016
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A Necessary Increase In Sophistication?
https://twitter.com/DrLancaster/status/742994739084075009
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Today… Has The Behaviour of Contract Cheating Become Normalised?
Daily Telegraph - 29 May 2016
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/29/essay-writing-industry-booms-as-students-demand-tailor-made-cour
“All Answers Ltd, one of the biggest players in the essay-writing business, has grown 10pc year on year, it said, while the boss of one its rivals, Essay Writer, believes the industry is now worth around £100m.”
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Sophisticated marketing campaign on the London Underground 2016
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All seen on a five minute walk between the railway station and a West Midlands university
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Facebook advertising (paid/free) targeted at students
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Cheating Opportunities Extending Beyond The Traditional “Essay”
Range of other services available through contract cheating sites
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Maybe I should have got someone else to write this talk for me?
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High Paying Referrals?
Essay writing services compete to attract the best affiliates and offer the best commission rates.
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Legitimate Reviews?
Standard marketing techniques for “legitimate” businesses now used by essay companies
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Do you get these benefits working at a university?
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Whole communities now exist to help people to become “academic writers” and enable them to work (providing contract cheating services)
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What Do We Need To Work On For The Next Ten Years?
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Consider The Underlying Marketing IssuesSophisticated marketing campaigns now in place to attract students, writers and affiliatesSites compete to be seen as offering a “legitimate” serviceSupport can be gained externally through “private tutors”
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https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/128037
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How do we promote the benefits to students of them completing their own work?
How do we address the unwillingness of some academics to take contract cheating seriously?
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References For My Main Contract Cheating Publications
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 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.
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Contract Cheating Resources On Slideshare.net
This session’s slides are available at:http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster
A video version of this presentation is available at:https://www.youtube.com/user/DrThomasLancaster
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Further Information and Speaker BookingsDr. Thomas Lancaster Contact Details
Email: [email protected]: http://thomaslancaster.co.ukBlog: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blogLinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/thomaslancaster Twitter: @DrLancaster
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
