Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
1#contractcheating
Combating Contract
Cheating and
Commissioning
Student Workshop held at the
University of Northampton
(27 February 2017)
Dr. Thomas Lancaster
Staffordshire University
http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
@DrLancaster
2#contractcheating
About the Workshop
3#contractcheating
My Background
“Traditional academic” – completed my undergraduate Computer Science degree, MSc Software Engineering, PhD, then worked in a variety of lecturing roles at Birmingham City University and Coventry University
Currently the Associate Dean (Recruitment) at Staffordshire University for the School of Computing and Digital Technologies
Some of my wider educational interests include: technology enhanced learning, digital and professional marketing, improving student experience, employability, social media use
My research background relates to plagiarism detection and contract cheating
4#contractcheating
My long-term research collaborative partner
A (now largely retired) Computing academic
A tireless advocate of academic integrity
Responsible for identifying more than 30,000
attempts worldwide by students looking to
contract cheat
With Thanks To Robert Clarke
5#contractcheating
A chance to think about and talk about contract
cheating – and what we can do about it!
Feel free to take tweet your thoughts using
#contractcheating and @DrLancaster
This Workshop
6#contractcheating
A selection of recent
tweets using the
#contractcheating hashtag
7#contractcheating
What Do We Think About
Contract Cheating?
8#contractcheating
Question
How does contract cheating
take place?
9#contractcheating
2003
An assignment I set on Rentacoder
(agency website where people can
outsource their tasks)
10#contractcheating
Present Day
All easily found using a Google
search for “write my essay”
11#contractcheating
Facebook advert
1970s newspaper
Flyers on lampposts
Twitter marketing
12#contractcheating
Question
Does contract cheating
really matter to students?
13#contractcheating
The Student Room Discussion (January 2017)
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4510154
14#contractcheating
Students getting degrees they don’t deserve
Students getting employment they don’t deserve
Possible danger to the general public
Damage to university (and graduate) reputation
Not a victimless crime
Problems With Contract Cheating
15#contractcheating
There Are Also Risks To Students Buying Essays
Hired Writers May Cheat
“I have used them 1 time and never again.
Scott1 was my writer and the paper was so
poorly written my instructor couldn't even finish
it. Like other reviews have pointed out the
writers use extra spaces and misspelled words
to get around turn it in as flagging it as
plagiarism.”
https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.studybay.com
Students May Get Blackmailed
“'Pay $1500 or be exposed for using essay website to cheat'.
That sums up an online scam that’s targeted CurtinUniversity students.
One international student reported the blackmail attempt toWA ScamNet. Thankfully he didn’t send any money.
The student went to an essay chat forum, and someone hewas chatting to on the forum gave him a lot of advice andsent him a sample essay. Then this online identity requestedmoney for the ‘tutoring’. The student did not believe heshould pay for the communication and says he did not usethe sample essay because he believed that to be ‘academicdishonesty’.”
http://www.scamnet.wa.gov.au/scamnet/Scam_Types-Alleged_fraud-Online_blackmail_scam_targets_students.htm
16#contractcheating
What Are Students Doing
About Contract Cheating?
17#contractcheating
18#contractcheating
International Day Of Action Against Contract
Cheating
19#contractcheating
#defeatthecheat
#excelwithintegrity
Which hashtag is better?
Twitter Hashtags Used
20#contractcheating
Other Awareness Raising Activities (1)
21#contractcheating
Other Awareness Raising Activities (2)
22#contractcheating
Other Awareness Raising Activ it ies (3)
23#contractcheating
Question
What would you do if a
friend told you they were
thinking about contract
cheating?
24#contractcheating
Question
What action, as a member if a
larger body of students, are
you going to take to promote
academic integrity?
25#contractcheating
My Contact Details
26#contractcheating
Connect With Thomas Lancaster(Speaking, PhD Supervision, Collaborations)
Contact Details
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
Blog: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blog
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/thomaslancaster
Twitter: @DrLancaster
General Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_cheating
http://contractcheating.com
Contract Cheating Special Interest Group
(originally supported by the Higher Education Academy):
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-
bin/webadmin?A0=CONTRACTCHEATING
Slides available at http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster
27#contractcheating
We can
#defeatthecheat
#excelwithintegrity
