Beyond Contract Cheating - Towards Academic Integrity - St. Andrews Teaching And Research Seminar - 10 November 2017

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

Friday 10 November 2017

Teaching and Research SeminarSchool of Psychology and NeuroscienceUniversity of St. Andrews

BEYOND CONTRACT CHEATING

TOWARDS ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

DR. THOMAS LANCASTERhttp://thomaslancaster.co.uk

[email protected]

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

A PRACTICAL SEMINAR

ON CONTRACT CHEATING AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

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@DrLancaster BEYOND CONTRACT CHEATING


Academic integrity advocate and regular media contributorJoined Staffordshire University as an Associate Dean in 2016Has actively researched student plagiarism and contract cheating since 2000Completed PhD on plagiarism detection in 2003 (Computer Scientist by trade)Knows enough to run a very profitable essay mill

DR. THOMAS LANCASTER

HIGHER EDUCATION PROFESSIONAL

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Former Principal Lecturer (30 years experience) at Birmingham City UniversityNow largely retiredHas collected over 30,000 attempts made by students to outsource their research online (just the “tip of the iceberg”)My co-author on many papers on contract cheating, including the first publication

WITH GRATEFUL THANKS

TO ROBERT CLARKE

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Discussion encouraged live and on Twitter using #contractcheating

A RESEARCH INFORMED SEMINAR

REVIEWING SECTOR PRACTICE

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

CONTRACT CHEATING ANDACADEMIC INTEGRITY

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

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Contract Cheating Academic Integrity

A student involves (or attempts to involve) an unacknowledged third party in the assignment production process

Promoting a positive view of assessment where individual effort and contributions are valued

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ADVERTISING MADE EASY

THE ESSAY MILL WAY

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Models based loosely on:

Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T., (2013), Commercial aspects of contract cheating. 18th ACM conference

on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education.

Student buys an original assignment from a writer, which is then handed in to a tutor for marking

CONTRACT CHEATING MODEL #1 (OF 3)

CONNECT WITH A WRITER

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Student buys an original assignment from an essay mill service – which outsources this to a writer. Student then hands this in to a tutor for marking.

CONTRACT CHEATING MODEL #2

GO THROUGH A COMPANY

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Student gets a friend or family member to complete their assignment for them, which they then hand in to a tutor for marking

All indications are that this model is the most common, even though essay mills with flashy websites attract the most attention

CONTRACT CHEATING MODEL #3

ASK THE FAMILY

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SECTOR DEVELOPMENTS

WHAT’S HAPPENING ABOUTCONTRACT CHEATING?

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The QAA recommends that universities:

• Provide clear information and support for students

• Involve students in writing academic integrity

processes and on accompanying panels

• Ban essay mills from advertising on campus

• Vary assessment methods

• Use writing style analysis software

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/publications/information-and-guidance/publication/?PubID=3200

QAA GUIDELINES

OCTOBER 2017

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/publications/information-and-guidance/publication/?PubID=3200

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QAA Presenting My (Older) Slides

QAA GUIDELINES

SOME PUBLICITY

BBC TV – October 2017

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#defeatthecheat#excelwithintegrity

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION

OCTOBER 2017

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

SO, IS CONTRACT CHEATING STILL REALLY A PROBLEM?

YES…

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https://bid4papers.com/blog/paid-for-essay

As well as a video, this company also

provides useful tips to students on how

to cheat better, like:

• Order multiple essays from the same

writer

• Provide the writer with your notes

and stance

• Edit the purchased essay to remove

words you would rarely use

ESSAY MILLS

A RESPONSE TO INTEGRITY?

https://youtu.be/Os_ksq5ZRPI

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http://www.scotsman.com/news/education/essay-writing-firms-preying-on-students-say-universities-1-4445050

THE SCOTSMAN

14 MAY 2017

http://www.scotsman.com/news/education/essay-writing-firms-preying-on-students-say-universities-1-4445050

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Search on Google(November 2017)

“psychology essay”

A SEARCH FOR HELP

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

VISIBLE REQUESTS

ALL LIVE NOVEMBER 2017

Found on Freelancer.com

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Contract cheating has become the victim of nichification

ALTERNATIVE SITES

ALL BASED IN THE UK

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6.6% of students (n=1298) say they have paid for work.

Wider sector estimates usually range from 2% to 10%.

85

236

977

0 200 400 600 800 1000

Yes

No, but I wouldconsider doing it

No

“Have you ever paid for work?”https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4991344

In an early study over 50% of students said that

they would be willing to commit contract

cheating if their risk of detection was low

Rigby, D., Burton, M., Balcombe, K., Bateman, I., Mulatu, A., Contract

Cheating And The Market In Essays, Journal of Economic Behavior &

Organization, Volume 111, March 2015, Pages 23-37

UK POLL ON THE STUDENT ROOM

OCTOBER 2017

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4991344

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

CONTRACT CHEATING

RESEARCH FINDINGS

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

#1 Business#2 Social Studies#3 History and philosophical studies#4 Medicine and related subjects#5 Education

Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2012), Dealing with Contract Cheating: A Question of

Attribution, 1st HEA STEM Conference April 2012, London, United Kingdom

15 subject groups identified

Results #1 to #4 represent over

50% of observed requests

n=627

THE WINNING FIVE SUBJECTS

A CONTRACT CHEATING LEAGUE TABLE

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

Cheap Essay

Fast Essay High Quality

Essay

THE ESSAY MILL PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRIANGLE

PICK TWO OUT OF THREE

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

Cheap Essay


Essay

Students paid an average of $101 USD to buy original assignments on Freelancer

n=338

Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2013). Commercial Aspects of Contract Cheating,

8th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science

Education (ITiCSE 2013), University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, July 2013

[example from PowerPoint presentation]

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

Cheap Essay


Essay

Freelancer study of awarded academic jobs showed an average of 10 more bidders

* As shown earlier in the presentation, the figures today look even higher

Wallace, M. J., & Newton, P. M. (2014). Turnaround time and market

capacity in contract cheating. Educational Studies, 40(2), 233-236.

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

Cheap Essay


Essay

26 History essays purchased in Australia

8 Fail10 Pass5 Credit3 Distinction

Lines, L., 2016. Ghostwriters guaranteeing grades? The quality of online ghostwriting services

available to tertiary students in Australia. Teaching in Higher Education, 21(8), pp.889-914.

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Our first study (2006)

found that the “average”

student contracted

between 4 and 7 times

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

Curtis, G.J. and Clare, J., (2017). How Prevalent is Contract Cheating and to What Extent are Students Repeat

Offenders?. Journal of Academic Ethics, 15(2), pp.115-124.

.

Supported by Curtis and Clare

(2017) “Of those who ever

engaged in contract cheating,

62.5% did so more than once”

ONE-OFF CHEATING?

OR HABITUAL?

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51.0% of academics agreed that their

institution had policies and procedures to

use when a student contract cheated

(n=255)

Students in SE Europe seemed more

willing to discuss contract cheating

than those from the UK, including

admitting writing for other students in

focus groups, and discussing adverts

shown on the university Facebook

Research conducted in six countries in

South East Europe

Glendinning, I., Foltýnek, T., Dlabolová, D., Linkeschová, D. and Lancaster, T. (2017).

Plagiarism in South East Europe Final Report, Council of Europe.

http://www.plagiarism.cz/seeppai

http://www.plagiarism.cz/seeppai

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

CONTRACT CHEATING

WHAT SHOULD THE SECTOR DO?

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

Research

There a lots of opportunities

What are the trends by academic discipline?

Can we detect contract cheating (the QAA think so)?

Teaching

The QAA recommendations are a good start.

Can’t stop cheating, but can make successful cheating less useful.

Reflection? (fakeable?)Authentic assessment?

#ditchtheessay

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

Contract Cheating Academic Integrity

How can we show support for

students?

How can we promote the positive

principles of academic integrity?

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

CONTRACT CHEATING

LINKS AND RESOURCES

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Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2017). Rethinking Assessment By Examination In The Age Of Contract Cheating, Plagiarism Across Europe and Beyond 2017,Brno, Czech Republic.

Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2016). Contract Cheating – The Outsourcing Of Assessed Student Work, in Handbook of Academic Integrity,

Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014). Using Turnitin As A Tool For Attribution In Cases Of Contract Cheating; 3rd Annual Higher Education AcademyConference in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Edinburgh, UK.

Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2013). Commercial Aspects Of Contract Cheating; 8th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in ComputerScience Education, Canterbury, UK.

Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2012). Dealing With Contract Cheating: A Question Of Attribution; 1st Annual Higher Education Academy Conference inScience, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics,, London, UK.

Clarke, R, and Lancaster, T (2007). Establishing a Systematic Six-Stage Process for Detecting Contract Cheating; The Second International Conference onPervasive Computing and Applications, Birmingham, UK.

Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2007). The Phenomena of Contract Cheating, in Student Plagiarism in an Online World: Problems and solutions.

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.

SOME ACADEMIC INTEGRITY RESOURCES

MORE ON GOOGLE SCHOLARhttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lViA0GAAAAAJ

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lViA0GAAAAAJ

#contractcheating

@DrLancaster

Dr. Thomas Lancaster Links:

http://thomaslancaster.co.uk

http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blog

http://contractcheating.com

Slides available at:

http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY SUPPORT

ADVICE AND CONSULTANCYSTAFF/STUDENT TRAININGSPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/

http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blog

http://contractcheating.com/

http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster