The literature and resources related to contract cheating have developed substantially since the first publication and presentation on this type of academic misconduct in 2006. This set of slides reviews the material from the original presentation, including the statistics collected showing the prevalence of contract cheating. Although the sites and services used have developed, many of the same principles continue to hold. The presentation recommends that increased attention is paid to contract cheating and that students need to be encouraged to support the movement towards academic integrity.

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Eliminating the Successor to
Plagiarism? Identifying the Usage of
Contract Cheating Sites
10 Years On
Presented by Dr. Thomas Lancaster
http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
Twitter: @DrLancaster

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The Context for 10 Years of
Contract Cheating Research

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Dr. Thomas Lancaster
Have researched the issues surrounding student
plagiarism, contract cheating and academic integrity
since January 2000
Principal Lecturer/Associate Head of School
Worked in a variety of academic positions at London
South Bank University, Birmingham City University
(University of Central England) and Coventry University
Completed technical PhD “Effective and Efficient
Plagiarism Detection” in 2003
Focused on the issues surrounding contract cheating
since 2004
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
BBC South East Today– BBC1
Dispatches – Channel 4
Fake Britain – BBC1

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Robert Clarke
“Detective Bob”
Educational Consultant and Researcher at SCL
Current Visiting Lecturer at Birmingham City
University
Former Principal Lecturer with 30 years teaching
experience
Has collected over 30,000 attempts made by
students wanting to cheat – and helped reunite
them with their owners
Gathered the original data (collected in 2005)
referred to in this presentation BBC News at Six – BBC1

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What Did I Present In 2006?

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Original presentation slides
Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T., “Eliminating the Successor to Plagiarism? Identifying the usage of contract cheating sites”, in
Proceedings of 2nd International Plagiarism Conference, Gateshead, United Kingdom, June 19-21, 2006

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Google Scholar Records

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Four Sites Used For Cheating
In 2006

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Non-Originality Agencies
Cheathouse.com
ElizabethHall.com
Ebay.com
RentACoder.com
Based on slide from
original 2006
presentation

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Based on site shown
in original 2006
presentation
Cheathouse.com in 2006

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Based on site shown
in original 2006
presentation
Cheathouse.com in 2006
Do students still justify
their behaviour with
similar reasons today?

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Studymode.com (replaced Cheathouse.com) in 2016

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Studymode.com (replaced Cheathouse.com) in 2016
Is this an attempt to
add legitimacy to the
site offering?

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Based on site shown
in original 2006
presentation
ElizabethHall.com in 2006

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Based on site shown
in original 2006
presentation
ElizabethHall.com in 2006

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ElizabethHall.com in 2016
For more about the marketing changes behind this site, see
my video presentation “A Decade of Contract Cheating”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWSKWfJYbNM

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Based on site shown
in original 2006
presentation
Ebay.com in 2006

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Based on site shown
in original 2006
presentation
Ebay.com in 2006

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Found on Ebay.com in 2016

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Based on site shown
in original 2006
presentation
Rentacoder.com in 2006

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Based on site shown
in original 2006
presentation
Rentacoder.com in 2006
For more about this original example, see my video
presentation “A Decade of Contract Cheating”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWSKWfJYbNM

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Found on vWorker.com (replaced Rentacoder.com) in 2016

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How Does Contract Cheating
Using Agency Sites Take
Place?

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Contract Cheating Process (1)
student creates bid request
sellers bid to complete work…
for a competitive price
student selects a seller -
funds placed in escrow
bidder creates original work
student submits original work
Based on slide from
original 2006
presentation
Now describe this as a process used by many
contract cheating agency sites (or contract
cheating auction sites)

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Contract Cheating Process (2)
student creates bid request
sellers bid to complete work…
for a competitive price
student selects a seller -
funds placed in escrow
bidder creates original work
student submits original work
Plagiarism?
Provable?
Based on slide from
original 2006
presentation
Plagiarism can be defined as “using the words or
ideas of another without acknowledgement”
These problems still exist today

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What Information About The
Extent of Contract Cheating
Exists From 2006?

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Headline Figure
12.3% of bid requests on RentACoder represent
contract cheating.
(data from 3 week exhaustive check of RentACoder
submissions, i.e. 99 out of 803 bid requests)
Based on slide from
original 2006
presentation

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Extent of use
236 contract cheating requests identified over a 2
month period
19 (8.1%) requesters made only a single bid request
122 (51.7%) requesters made between 2 and 7 bid requests
6 (2.5%) requesters made 51 or more bid requests
Based on slide from
original 2006
presentation

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Identifying user types
Few occasional users
Many habitual cheaters
Non-originality agencies
Based on slide from
original 2006
presentation

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What Recommendations Are
There?

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Final Thoughts
Contract cheating is:
certain to become an increasing problem of academic integrity
cannot be eliminated using standard plagiarism detection techniques
requires amendment of university regulations
requires redesign of assessment techniques
Any questions?
Any answers?
Based on slide from
original 2006
presentation
My 10 year aim
Can we reframe how students think about cheating
and use students as partners to promote academic
integrity?

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Additional Contract Cheating
Resources

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References For My Main Contract
Cheating Publications
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2015). Contract Cheating – The Outsourcing Of Assessed Student Work, in Handbook of Academic Integrity, Bretag, T. (editor): SpringerReference.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2015). The Implications of Plagiarism and Contract Cheating for the Assessment of Database Modules. 13th International Workshop on Teaching,
Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2015), Birmingham, UK, July 2015.
Hersey, C. and Lancaster, T. (2015). The Online Industry of Paper Mills, Contract Cheating Services, and Auction Sites, Clute Institute International Education Conference, London,
UK, June 2015.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014). An Observational Analysis Of The Range And Extent Of Contract Cheating From Online Courses Found On Agency Websites; 8th International
Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS 2014), Birmingham City University, UK, July 2014.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014). An Initial Analysis Of The Contextual Information Available Within Auction Posts On Contract Cheating Agency Websites, 28th IEEE
International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, University of Victoria, Canada, May 2014
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014). Using Turnitin As A Tool For Attribution In Cases Of Contract Cheating; 3rd Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, UK, April 2014.
Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2013). Commercial Aspects Of Contract Cheating; 8th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, University
of Kent, Canterbury, UK, July 2013.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2012). Dealing With Contract Cheating: A Question Of Attribution; 1st Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics, Imperial College, London, UK, April 2012.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2010). Staff-Led Individualised Assessment – A Case Study; 11th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Information and Computer
Sciences, Durham University, UK, ugust 2010.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2008). How to Succeed at Cheating Without Really Trying: Five Top Tips for Successful Cheating; 9th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference
in Information and Computer Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, UK, August 2008.
Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2007). Establishing a Systematic Six-Stage Process for Detecting Contract Cheating; The Second International Conference on Pervasive Computing
and Applications, Birmingham City University, UK, July 2007.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2007). Assessing Contract Cheating Through Auction Sites – A Computing Perspective; 8th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in
Information and Computer Sciences, University of Southampton, UK, August 2007.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2007) The Phenomena of Contract Cheating, in Student Plagiarism in an Online World: Problems and solutions, Roberts, T. S. (editor), Hershey,
Pennsylvania, USA: Idea Group Inc.
Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2006). Eliminating The Successor To Plagiarism? Identifying The Usage Of Contract Cheating Sites; 2nd Plagiarism: Prevention, Practice and Policy
Conference 2006 - Newcastle, UK, June 2006.

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Contract Cheating Resources On
Slideshare.net
These slides are are available at:
http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster
A video version of this presentation is
available at:
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrThomasLancaster

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Further Information and Presentation
Opportunities
Dr. Thomas Lancaster Contact Details
Email: thomas.lancaster@coventry.ac.uk
Website: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
Blog: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blog
LinkedIn:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/thomaslancaster
Twitter: @DrLancaster
Dr. Thomas Lancaster Speaker Options
Contract Cheating – Staff development
Academic discipline specific provision
Cheating in tests and examinations
Nursing and health student misconduct
(and many more)
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