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HEA Contract Cheating Special Interest Group

MeetingLed by

Thomas Lancaster and Robert Clarke Birmingham City University

© Clarke & Lancaster 2013SIG_Bham 13

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Meeting Format

• Introduce the HEA Contract Cheating Special Interest Group and associated resources

• Overview contract cheating and how it is different from plagiarism

• Provide some research statistics on contract cheating

• Present the latest challenges of contract cheating• Open up to the floor for discussion of issues of

interest to the SIG

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Special Interest Group

• Initially funded by the HEA, launched at a workshop at Birmingham City University on Friday 22 June 2012(Resources available)

http://www.bcu.ac.uk/tee/events/previous-events/contract-cheating

• Communicates mostly through a JISCMail discussion list (opportunities for live discussions are welcome)

https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=CONTRACTCHEATING

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Categories of “Cheating” In assessed coursework we can characterise 3 main categories:-

Collusioncopying from students

in same cohort

ContractCheating

work is produced by an external agent

Plagiarismcopying from books

or internet

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Contract Cheating

• Contract Cheating occurs when a student uses the services of a third party to produce assessed work for them

• (Some) examples of how contract cheating is undertaken include:– Online auction sites (Freelancer.com,

RentACoder.com)– Friends and family– Online essay mills– Private tutors

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What’s Going On Right Now?

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As of 16 April 2013, 23:30

Found using search “essay”

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Who Is Bidding?

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Who Is Requesting?

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What Are The Challenges?• Contract cheating happens continually – often

behind closed doors• Contract cheating appears to many to be a

“victimless crime” – but is it?• Auction site work can be cheap (competitive

bid process) and at a high academic level

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And The Biggest Challenge?• Contract Cheating is original (“work to order”)

– not detected by TurnItIn– requires a (labour intensive) detective role

• Projects on auction sites are often only live for a limited time, so any detective success is subject to human limitations

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Some Statistics

• The “average student” posts between 4 and 7 assignments (March 04 to October 06)

• Most common subjects on non-Computing sites (EssayBay):– Business and Admin Studies– Social Studies– History and Philosophical Studies– Medicine

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More About EssayBay

• First study of a web-site dedicating to enabling contract cheating– Rentacoder (now vWorker) 85% legitimate work– Site ceased fully functioning in Aug 2010

• Shows wide range of subjects involved– Maths & Computing only 5%– Business Studies main category (25%)– Everything from “anthropology to theology”

• Range of levels of work– Difficult to verify (mostly self-reported by student)– Significant number at Masters level (21%)– Some PhD requests – mostly research proposals

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Students Aren’t All Getting Caught (By Us)…

AssignmentsPosted

SourceAttributed

StudentIdentified

1 in 3 postings detected

1 in 3attributed

1 in 3students found

1 in 27 cheaters

dealt with

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A New Success? - Assignment Briefs on Turnitin

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Small %ages can be significant

matches occurs when student paper

contains parts of assignment brief

We recommend that staff upload assignment briefs to Turnitin as soon as the assignment is released to students

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Outsourcing Web Sites (7 Years)• Freelancer + vWorker

– main sites we examine– easy to search– give most details of users– tracking sub-contractors– two sites now merged

• Kasamba (Liveperson)– “tutorial” site

• Student Of Fortune + Transtutors– sells HW solutions

TRANSTUTORS

ODESK

OTHER

KASAMBA

SCRIPTLANCE

ESSAYBAY

GETACODER

VWORKER

FREELANCER

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

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25

103

216

291

721

1178

5432

6455

Postings by source 2005-2012Total of 14,438 detected items

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(stats of July 2012)

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Detection is not enough• No magic bullet

– A multi-faceted approach is needed

• Fear of detection is the best deterrent– must improve attribution rate (post assignment specs on Turnitin)– increase use of individualised assignments– watermarking assignment specifications

• Increase awareness amongst staff– Common to hear “didn’t know this type of thing happened”– Need to look out for idiosyncratic elements in coursework

• Ensure regulations are robust enough– Level of “proof” available not same as for plagiarism– Attempt to cheat (as in an exam) should be an offence

• Increase awareness amongst students– Cheating is not a victim-less crime– Problem with a new intake each year

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The future?

• More students see “buying” a solution as an option• Staff have less time to design and administer

assignments• Increased use of on-line/distance learning activities• Increased use of franchising of courses• Increased number of contractors providing solutions• Increased use of Private Tutors outside the

classroom• Difficulty in progressing cases of cheating

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Discussion Areas…

• What do you feel that the HEA Contract Cheating SIG should be delivering?

• What pressing issues, concerns and solutions do you have for Contract Cheating?

• Are you interested in attending more in-depth workshops on (preventing and detecting) contract cheating?

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Upcoming Event

• Outsourcing Assignments? Exposing The Threat Posed By Contract Cheating To The Computing Industry– Wolverhampton Branch, British Computer Society– Wednesday 24 April, 2013, 6:30pm to 8:00pm

http://www.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/50179

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Upcoming Research

• Commercial Aspects of Contract Cheating– Analyses the monetary value of contract cheating

to the different parties involved in the process– ITiCSE 2013, University of Kent– Monday 1 July, 2013 to Wednesday 3 July, 2013

http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/events/iticse2013

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