Addressing contract cheating:

local and global responses

Assoc. Prof Tracey Bretag and Dr Rowena Harper

University of South Australia

Project Co-Leaders, Contract cheating and assessment design:

exploring the connection

Overview

A perfect storm?

2015/2016 context: increasing threats to integrity

Contract cheating: a new era for academic integrity

International movement

Solving the problem with assessment design?

Multi-pronged, systemic approach

Overview

• Academic integrity landscape: the last 20 years

• 2016: a new era

• Debunking the myths, or what won’t work

• Multi-pronged and holistic approaches

• Designing teaching and learning with integrity

2015/2016 global context

Commercialisation and marketization of HE

Widening participation and diversification of HE

Internationalisation of HE and links to immigration

More pressure on universities

Managerialism, metrics and ‘measurement’

Increasing competition at all levels – funding,

admissions, performance in teaching and research

Digital disruption and global trade agreements

affecting employment

Job markets more precarious

Corruption in wider society, scandals regularly in

media

Changing social values and norms

2015/2016 local context

Policy changes with every new government, and

perpetual uncertainty about funding

A profit mindset: financially strategic offerings,

large class sizes, ‘efficiency’ in teaching

Casualization of the academic workforce

Growing diversity among students and staff

Employability focus

credentialism drives instrumental and transactional

approaches to learning

Explosion of global networks and social media

MyMaster scandal (Visentin 2015)

Fake diploma mills (Chung 2015)

SBS ‘Pens for Hire’ http://www.sbs.com.au/news/thefeed

ICAC investigation of corruption in higher education

TEQSA request to all Higher Education Providers for

‘assurance of academic integrity’

More scandals: ‘ghost’ students, fraudulent recruitment

practices, low standards

2015/2016 local context

A new era for academic integrity

Contract cheating

When a student arranges for a third party to

complete their work for them.

The third party may be a relative, acquaintance or stranger.

It may be for money, or done as a favour or exchange.

Thomas Lancaster and Robert Clarke, 2006, 2007, 2016

How serious is it?

Small scale study in UK, Rigby et al (2015)

half of the student participants (n=90) were willing to buy

an assignment from a cheat site

UniSA student, academic integrity discussion (2015)

“When we have a group task, the first thing we do is sit

down and ask the question: ‘Should we buy the assignment

or do it ourselves?’ Which one would be quicker and get the

best result?”

Study on appropriate responses (Newton 2015, p. 11)

Standard university response: suspension or expulsion

89.9% of undergraduate students thought a more lenient

penalty should apply, with 41.8% thinking the penalty

should be to fail the assignment

How serious is it?

Currently, no Australian data on the issue

Australian OLT Project (Bretag & Harper)

www.cheatingandassessment.edu.au

Will gather data on the issue in Australia from students

and staff

Despite a concerted effort by Australian universities over

the last 15 years to improve academic integrity policies

and processes, they are still catching up to this emerging

problem

Need for a consistent approach within and across

universities, locally and internationally

International movement

Cheat sites/essay mills are illegal in New Zealand and in

some states in the USA

Since 2014, a group of scholars have been collaborating

to develop legislation for making contract cheat sites

illegal in Canada

International consortium on Contract Cheating

Led by Tricia Bertram Gallant, UCSD, & membership from

USA

Canada

UK

Greece

Australia

International movement

UK petition

started by

Marcus Ball,

June 2016

International movement

International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating

19 October 2016

http://contractcheating.weebly.com/

Assessment design: the solution?

There appears to be an unchallenged consensus

that assessment design is the ‘solution’

Assessment design is critical, BUT…

… a number of myths abound which assume

that it can be used to easily address contract

cheating

Myth 1: Invigilated exams will eradicate

contract cheating

Debunking the myth

In countries where invigilated exams are the norm,

academic integrity issues are rife

Impersonation, identification fraud, devices and

gadgets

Learning issue

High stakes exams encourage rote learning, and assess

a limited range of learning outcomes.

Disadvantages students who do not perform well in

these circumstances.

Assessment design: the solution?

Myth 2: Authentic assessment will eradicate

contract cheating

Debunking the myth

Employment portfolios, reflective journals, case

studies, experiential reflections, online presentations,

group projects, research proposals, and even complete

doctoral dissertations can all be bought like any other

commodity.

Learning issue

Authenticity should be valued - for students genuinely

engaged in learning, authentic assessment provides

relevance, and valuable opportunities to link theory to

practice.

Assessment design: the solution?

Myth 3: Personalised, sequential & original

assessments will eradicate contract cheating

Debunking the myth

This counters ‘opportunistic cheating’

Again, ANYTHING can be outsourced.

https://www.takeyourclass.com/

Learning issue

It will not be appropriate for assessing all learning

outcomes

Not practical in all courses

Assessment design: the solution?

Myth 4: Decreased ‘turnaround time’ will

eradicate contract cheating

Debunking the myth

For a price, and even within extreme timelines of hours

rather than days, any assessment can be contracted out

Overall mean requested turnaround time for 132 posted

assignments on ‘Freelancer’ & ‘Transtutors’: 5.14 days.

24% of these requests were for a turnaround time of one

day or less (Wallace & Newton, 2014, p. 233).

Learning issue

Disadvantages good students who carefully plan

assignments. May even encourage students to outsource

assignments due to unreasonable time pressure.

Assessment design: the solution?

Multi-pronged approach

A multi-pronged approach is needed (Newton &

Lang 2016, cited in QAA Report 2016):

Legislation (national and international collaboration?)

Technology

Course and assessment design

Consequences, both academic and legal

Relationship building (between students and staff)

Systemic approach

Integrity should underpin every aspect of a university’s

operations

Institutional mission statements, marketing & admissions

processes (Bertram Gallant & Kalichman 2011)

Nuanced and carefully articulated policy & procedures (Bretag

et al 2013; Carroll & Appleton 2001)

Curriculum design and assessment practices (Devlin 2002)

Professional development for staff (HEA 2011a)

Information provided during orientation and on campus

(Bertram Gallant & Kalichman 2011; Bretag 2013b)

Partnering with students as integrity champions (Saddiqui 2016)

Technologies for both education and detection (HEA 2011a)

Office with a remit for academic integrity (HEA 2011a)

Concluding comments

We are confronting new and serious academic

integrity challenges that require new responses

The sector needs to commit to a systemic,

collaborative approach which makes integrity

central to all areas of university operations

This requires a commitment of resources and the

willingness to be transparent and accountable

Both local and global responses are needed

The risk to higher education is too real to be

complacent

Academic Integrity Standards Project: http://www.aisp.apfei.edu.au/

Bertram Gallant, T. & Kalichman, M. (2011). Academic Ethics: A Systems Approach to

Understanding Misconduct and Empowering Change in the Academy. In Creating the Ethical

Academy: A Systems Approach to Understanding Misconduct and Empowering Change in

Higher Education, ed. T. Bertram Gallant, 27-44. New York: Routledge.

Bretag, T. (2013). Challenges in addressing plagiarism in education. PLOS Medicine, 10(12):

e1001574. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001574.

Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., East, J., Green, M., James, C., McGowan, U., Partridge, L., Wallace, M. &

Walker, R. (2011a). Academic integrity standards: A preliminary analysis of the academic

integrity policies at Australian universities, presented at Australian Quality Forum, 29 June-

1 July, Melbourne, Australia. http://www.auqa.edu.au/files/auqf/paper/paper_h20.pdf

Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., Wallace, M., Walker, R., Green, M., East, J., James, C., McGowan, U.,

Partridge, L. (2011b). Core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy in Australian

higher education, International Journal for Educational Integrity, 7(2), pp. 3-12, available

online: http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/IJEI/article/viewFile/759/574

Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., Walker, R., Wallace, M., McGowan, U., East, J., Green, M., Partridge, L.

and James, C. (2013). ‘Teach us how to do it properly!’ An Australian academic integrity

student survey, Studies in Higher Education,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.777406

Carroll, J. & Appleton, J. (2001). Plagiarism: A good practice guide, JISC Joint Information

Systems,UK.

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140614152728/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/

media/documents/programmes/plagiarism/brookes.pdf

Useful references

Chung, F. (2015). The great Aussie degree scam: Forgers raking in thousands selling bogus

qualifications, news.com, 30 March, http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/the-great-aussie-

degree-scam-forgers-raking-in-thousands-selling-bogus-qualifications/story-fnkgbb3b-

1227284475119

Davis, S.F, Drinan, P. & Bertram Gallant, T. (2009). Cheating in school: What we know and what

we can do, Wiley-Blackwell, UK.

Exemplary Academic Integrity Project: www.unisa.edu.au/EAIP

Harding, D. (2015). Three hundred people arrested, 750 students expelled in India after mass cheating

scandal, New York Daily News, 22 March 22. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/hundreds-

arrested-expelled-india-cheating-exams-article-1.2158517 [accessed 2 November 2015]

HEA (2011a). Policy works: Recommendations for reviewing policy to manage unacceptable academic

practice in higher education, Higher Education Academy JISC Academic Integrity Service

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/academicintegrity/policy_works

HEA (2011b). Supporting academic integrity: Approaches and resources for higher education, Higher

Education Academy JISC Academic Integrity Service

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/academicintegrity/SupportingAcademicIntegrity

_v2.pdf

International Center for Academic Integrity (2012) Fundamental Values Project (revised)

http://www.academicintegrity.org/icai/resources-2.php

Lancaster, T. & Clarke, R. (2016). Contract cheating: The outsourcing of assessed student work. In

Bretag, T. (Ed). Handbook of Academic Integrity, Springer.

Mahmud, S. and Bretag T. (2013b). Postgraduate research students and academic integrity: ‘It's about

good research training’. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 35(4), 432-443.

Mahmud, S. & Bretag, T. (2013a). Fostering integrity in postgraduate research: An evidence-based

policy and support framework, Accountability in Research, DOI:10.1080/08989621.2014.847668

Useful references

Newton, P. & Lang, C. (2016). Custom essay writers, freelancers and other paid third parties,

Chapter 19 in Bretag, T. (Ed). Handbook of Academic Integrity, Springer.

QAA (2016). Plagiarism in higher education: Custom essay writing services: An exploration and next

steps for the UK higher education sector,

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Plagiarism-in-Higher-Education-2016.pdf

[accessed 4 October 2016]

Rigby, D., Burton, M., Balcombe, K., Bateman, I. & Mulatu, A. (2015). Contract cheating and the

market in essays. Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, 111, 25-37.

Saddiqui, S. (2016). Engaging students and faculty: Examining and overcoming the barriers, Chapter

69 in Bretag, T. (Ed). Handbook of Academic Integrity, Springer.

Swearingon, B., Stinnett, K., Johnson, a. & Tomasi, T. (2015). The new technologies of academic

dishonesty, 23rd Annual International Conference on Academic Integrity: Integrity in the Real

World, Vancouver, Canada, 26 February-1 March.

Visentin, L. (2015a). MyMaster essay cheating scandal: More than 70 university students face

suspension, Sydney Morning Herald online, 19 March, http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mymaster-

essay-cheating-scandal-more-than-70-university-students-face-suspension-20150318-

1425oe.html

Visentin, L. (2015b) Sydney University to crack down on cheating following MyMaster investigation,

Sydney Morning Herald online, 13 April, http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-university-to-

crack-down-on-cheating-following-mymaster-investigation-20150413-1mju3q.html

Wallace, M.J. & Newton, P.M. (2014). Turnaround time and market capacity in contract cheating

Educational Studies, 40(2), 233-236.

Useful references

Slide 3

Storm photograph. Creative commons image from Pixabay. Free for commercial use.

Slide 8

Photographs of on-campus advertising (authors’ own)

https://thinkswap.com/

https://www.coursehero.com/

http://custom-papers.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/

https://www.customwritings.com/

Slide 12

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/128037

Slide 21

Deakin University http://www.dusa.org.au/Advocacy-(1)/Contract-Cheating

George Mason University https://www2.gmu.edu/

Brigham Young Student Honor Association http://www.byui.edu/student-honor-office

University of Windsor http://www1.uwindsor.ca/academicintegrityoffice/

UniSA, Office for Academic Integrity

Images