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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

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About the Workshop

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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

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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

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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

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A selection of recent

tweets using the

#contractcheating hashtag

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What Do We Think About

Contract Cheating?

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Question

How does contract cheating

take place?

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2003

An assignment I set on Rentacoder

(agency website where people can

outsource their tasks)

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Present Day

All easily found using a Google

search for “write my essay”

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Facebook advert

1970s newspaper

Flyers on lampposts

Twitter marketing

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Question

Does contract cheating

really matter to students?

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The Student Room Discussion (January 2017)

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4510154

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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

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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

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What Are Students Doing

About Contract Cheating?

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International Day Of Action Against Contract

Cheating

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#defeatthecheat

#excelwithintegrity

Which hashtag is better?

Twitter Hashtags Used

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Other Awareness Raising Activities (1)

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Other Awareness Raising Activities (2)

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Other Awareness Raising Activ it ies (3)

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Question

What would you do if a

friend told you they were

thinking about contract

cheating?

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Question

What action, as a member if a

larger body of students, are

you going to take to promote

academic integrity?

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My Contact Details

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Connect With Thomas Lancaster(Speaking, PhD Supervision, Collaborations)

Contact Details

Email: thomas@thomaslancaster.co.uk

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

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We can

#defeatthecheat

#excelwithintegrity