What can students to help to build a positive culture of academic integrity and combat contract cheating? This workshop, held at University of Northampton, explores why contract cheating is an issue for students and provides examples of how student unions and individual students worldwide and getting involved and taking a stance against contract cheating using the student determined hashtags #defeatthecheat and #excelwithintegrity.

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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 Curtin
University students.
One international student reported the blackmail attempt to
WA ScamNet. Thankfully he didn’t send any money.
The student went to an essay chat forum, and someone he
was chatting to on the forum gave him a lot of advice and
sent him a sample essay. Then this online identity requested
money for the ‘tutoring’. The student did not believe he
should pay for the communication and says he did not use
the sample essay because he believed that to be ‘academic
dishonesty’.”
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 Activities (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