Abstract
Much of the literature on contract cheating presents this as a challenge to be answered through student education, process development and punitive measures, but little literature considers how the student voice can be incorporated into the discussion. This chapter takes an approach intended to complement existing practice, assessing how staff-student partnerships can help address contract cheating. Examples of staff-student collaborative innovations that have been used to promote academic integrity and to try and combat contract cheating are provided. One approach discussed is the co-production of contract cheating research studies, thus enabling students to move from consuming research results to becoming actively involved with their production. It is anticipated that this chapter will be useful for staff wishing to support students in becoming academic integrity champions.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Amigud, A. (2020). Cheaters on Twitter: An analysis of engagement approaches of contract cheating services. Studies in Higher Education, 45(3), 692–705. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2018.1564258
Amigud, A., & Dawson, P. (2020). The law and the outlaw: Is legal prohibition a viable solution to the contract cheating problem? Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 45(1), 98–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1612851
Bretag, T. (2019). Contract cheating will erode trust in science. Nature, 574(7780), 599–600. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03265-1
Bretag, T., Harper, R., Burton, M., Ellis, C., Newton, P., van Haeringen, K., & Rozenberg, P. (2019). Contract cheating and assessment design: Exploring the relationship. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(5), 676–691. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1527892
Clarke, R., & Lancaster, T. (2006, June 19–21). Eliminating the successor to plagiarism? Identifying the usage of contract cheating sites [Conference presentation]. Proceedings of 2nd International Plagiarism Conference, Newcastle, UK.
Curtis, G., & Clare, J. (2017). How prevalent is contract cheating and to what extent are students repeat offenders? Journal of Academic Ethics, 15(2), 115–124. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-017-9278-x
Dawson, P., & Sutherland-Smith, W. (2018). Can markers detect contract cheating? Results from a pilot study. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(2), 286–293. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1336746
Draper, M., & Newton, P. (2017). A legal approach to tackling contract cheating? International Journal for Educational Integrity, 13(11). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-017-0022-5
Eaton, S. E. (2022). Contract cheating in Canada: A comprehensive overview. In S. E. Eaton & J. Christensen Hughes (Eds.), Academic integrity in Canada: An enduring and essential challenge (pp. 165–187). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83255-1_8
Freeman, R., Millard, L., Brand, S., & Chapman, P. (2014). Student academic partners: Student employment for collaborative learning and teaching development. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 51(3), 233–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2013.778064
Hicking, S. (2020). Reading between the lines: Exploring the essay mill industry [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/r_8QajLHp-k
Imperial College London. (n.d.). StudentShapers. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/students/studentshapers
International Center for Academic Integrity. (n.d.). IDOA International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating. https://academicintegrity.org/events-conferences/idoa-international-day-of-action-against-contract-cheating
Khan, Z., Hemnani, P., Raheja, S., & Joshy, J. (2020). Raising awareness on contract cheating–lessons learned from running campus-wide campaigns. Journal of Academic Ethics, 18(1), 17–33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-019-09353-1
Lancaster, T. (2019). Social media enabled contract cheating. Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity, 2(2), 7–24. https://doi.org/10.11575/cpai.v2i2.68053
Lancaster, T. (2020). Academic discipline integration by contract cheating services and essay Mills. Journal of Academic Ethics, 18(2), 115–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-019-09357-x
Lancaster, T. (2021a, March 1–4). Developing an academic integrity research module for undergraduate students [Conference presentation]. International Center for Academic Integrity Conference 2021. Virtual conference.
Lancaster, T. (2021b, June 22–23). The power of academic integrity communities [Keynote address]. Canadian Symposium on Academic Integrity 2021. Virtual presentation.
Lancaster, T. (2021c, October 18). Academic integrity: The student partnership approach [Keynote address]. National Academic Integrity Week (Ireland). Virtual presentation.
Lancaster, T., & Clarke, R. (2016). Contract cheating: The outsourcing of assessed student work. In T. Bretag (Ed.), Handbook of academic integrity (pp. 639–654). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-098-8_17.
Lancaster, T., & Cotarlan, C. (2021). Contract cheating by STEM students through a file sharing website: A Covid-19 pandemic perspective. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-021-00070-0
Lancaster, T., & Gupta, R. (2021, June 9–11). Contract cheating and unauthorised homework assistance through Reddit communities [Conference presentation]. European Conference on Academic Integrity and Plagiarism 2021. https://academicintegrity.eu/conference/
Lines, L. (2016). Ghostwriters guaranteeing grades? The quality of online ghostwriting services available to tertiary students in Australia. Teaching in Higher Education, 21(8), 889–914. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2016.1198759
Ma, L. (2020, August). Desperate measures [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/_g5mrcZYbmg
Menon, A. (2017, July 10). At your service [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/91VoX0m1EBs
Morris, E. J. (2018). Academic integrity matters: Five considerations for addressing contract cheating. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 14(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-018-0038-5
Pitt, P., Dullaghan, K., & Sutherland-Smith, W. (2020). “Mess, stress and trauma”: Students’ experiences of formal contract cheating processes. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 46(4), 659–672. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2020.1787332
Rogerson, A. M. (2017). Detecting contract cheating in essay and report submissions: Process, patterns, clues and conversations. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 13(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-017-0021-6
Rogerson, A., & Basanta, G. (2016). Peer-to-peer file sharing and academic integrity in the internet age. In T. Bretag (Ed.). Handbook of academic integrity (pp. 273–285). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-098-8_55
Roschelle, J., Penuel, W., & Shechtman, N. (2006). Co-design of innovations with teachers: Definition and dynamics. ICLS ‘06: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Learning Sciences, Bloomington, Indiana.
Stott, L. (1976). Integrity in public education. The Journal of Educational Thought (JET)/Revue de la Pensée Educative, 132–141. https://doi.org/10.11575/jet.v10i2.43865
Sutherland-Smith, W., & Dullaghan, K. (2019). You don’t always get what you pay for: User experiences of engaging with contract cheating sites. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44, 1148–1162. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1576028
University of Sussex Students’ Union. (n.d.). Academic misconduct panels. https://sussexstudent.com/support/academic-misconduct/misc-panels
Waltzer, T., Samuelson, A., & Dahl, A. (2021). Students’ reasoning about whether to report when others cheat: Conflict, confusion, and consequences. Journal of Academic Ethics, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-021-09414-4
Yorke, J., Sefcik, L., & Veeran-Colton, T. (2020). Contract cheating and blackmail: A risky business? Studies in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1730313
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to acknowledge and thank all the student partners whose experience has helped with the shaping of this chapter.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lancaster, T. (2022). Addressing Contract Cheating Through Staff-Student Partnerships. In: Eaton, S.E., Curtis, G.J., Stoesz, B.M., Clare, J., Rundle, K., Seeland, J. (eds) Contract Cheating in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12680-2_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12680-2_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-12679-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-12680-2
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)