The Threat Of Contract Cheating - Examining The Paid For Assignment Solutions Unduly Populating The Computing Discipline - University Of West London - 22 November 2013

The Threat Of Contract Cheating –
Examining The “Paid For” Assignment
Solutions Unduly Populating The
Computing Discipline
Thomas Lancaster
University Of West London
Friday 22 November 2013
@MyBCU

www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity

#contractcheating

1

A Bit Of Background
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

2

What’s Being Covered?
An introduction to contract cheating informed by research
studies and experience within the Innovations in Computing
Education group at Birmingham City University
The focus is on:
Methods students are using to have “paid for” assignments cheaply
produced for them
Research into the extent of contract cheating and the type of
assignments being produced within the Computing discipline
The problems and potential solutions for contract cheating for
exploration by Computing academics
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

3

My Background
Dr. Thomas Lancaster

Senior Lecturer in Computing
PhD “Effective And Efficient
Plagiarism Detection” from London
South Bank University
Leader of Innovations in Computing
Education Group
Programme Leader Computer
Science
“These sites are creating a
generation of fraudsters in education
and thickos in the workplace.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-391085/Thecybercheats-making-small-fortune.html

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

4

Never believe any quotes you
see in the Daily Mail!

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

5

“The Detective”
Robert Clarke

Educational Consultant
Current Visiting Lecturer
Former Principal Lecturer
30 Years Experience Teaching At
Birmingham City University
Has collected over 19,000 attempts at
Contract Cheating

“Would you like to go for a job and be
pipped to the post by someone who
cheated in their degree?”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20298237

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

6

A Nuclear Engineer?
this a assignment for do shielding for fast reactor i need
the materials, shape, attenuation coefficient and size of
the shielding and dose analysis around the reactor. this
for health physics or nuclear engineering
Do you want to
live within 5 miles
of this person?

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

7

Need Your Computing
Assignment “Done For You” In
Ealing?
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

8

PhD Expert Available!

http://www.gumtree.com/p/business-services/computingprogramming-tutoring-courseworkassignment-help-in-computingprogramming-by-phdexpert/1033905911#photo-content

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

9

Meet My Tutor

http://meetmytutor.com/tutors/heidar-hosseini

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

10

How About A 10,000 Word
Undergraduate Project?
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

11

More Ethical Than
Some Services?

http://www.elizabethhall.co.uk/services_dissertation_ghost_writing.htm

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

12

And Pricier…

10,000 words = £4,000 (plus a few “extras”)
http://www.elizabethhall.co.uk/costs.htm

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

13

Or Cheaper…

10,000 words = £660
@MyBCU


http://royalessays.co.uk/prices_and_discounts

#contractcheating

14

Lots Of Choice…

10,000 words = £476
@MyBCU


http://www.college-paper.org/prices.html

#contractcheating

15

Or “Make Them Fight
For It!”

(roughly) 10,000 words = $498 = £308
http://www.freelancer.com/projects/Academic-Writing-Ghostwriting/Dissertation-Bachelor-business.html

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

16

Maybe, We Could Have
Done Better…

And 42 other bids
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

17

The Business Of
Contract Cheating
Contract cheating occurs when a student has an
original piece of work created for them, which
they then hand in for academic credit
Work could include source code, dissertations,
presentation slides, databases, logbooks, PDP …

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

18

This May Be A Smart
Business Decision!
The 10,000 word (Business) dissertation costs
Elizabeth Hall

£4,000

Royal Essays

£660

College Paper

£476

Freelancer (paid)

£308

Freelancer (cheapest)

£155

Not bad, compared to £9000 a year course fees
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

19

And, We Know That
We’re Getting

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

20

The Real Problem Of
Contract Cheating?
Contract cheating provides students with
original work
This will be marked by academics like any other
original work
This won’t usually be detected as plagiarised when
using “text matching tools” such as Turnitin

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

21

How To Combat Contract
Cheating?
The Detective
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

22

The Role Of The
Detective
To monitor sites on which assignment specifications are
visibly placed
To attempt to attribute the assignment specification to an
academic institution
To attempt to contact and notify an appropriate academic
within that institution
To hope that academic can then identify the cheating
student
To hope that academic will then get a suitable conviction
from a cheating panel
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

23

Finding Clues
Online Search
Google Search for text in the body of the posting
Google search for text in attachments
May also look for indicators on Turnitin

Alias used by student
Search across social networking sites for location
and identity clues
Google Images search for photo used by student

Usually relies on trace evidence
Use text editor to examine files

Multiple postings may be needed
By same student over a period of time
By different students at same time

May need to combine several clues
e.g. module code + location
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

24

Monitoring Can Go
Wrong
Monitoring
Assignment specifications not visible when a detective
is hunting
Assignment specifications sent only to people who
express interest (private auction)
Student uses a contract cheating mechanism that is
not monitorable (friends/family/personal
tutors/classified ads)
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

25

Attribution And
Notification Can Go
Wrong
Attribution
Assignment specification a generic textbook or
learning repository assignment, not attributable
Assignment specification only kept in private database,
not findable

Notification
Staff contact information often now not available to the public
No standard email address available for “academic integrity”
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

26

Business Studies #06724
(Not Attributed)

Take Home Exam
An Innocent Abroad: Fred Bailey in Tokyo Case
Study Analysis based on Cross Cultural Management
view point (using Hofstede's Cultural Indices and
MBI Frame work)
Google finds about 181,000 results
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

27

Online Universities

Examples frequently found on agency sites
Have observed multiple (10+) postings by one person
Very difficult to notify staff (lack of email addresses)
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

28

Identification And
Conviction Can Go
Wrong
Identification
Large class, impossible to work out which student has
contract cheated

Conviction
Academic policies do not understand that contract
cheating will not provide a source document (this is
original work, but not by the listed student)
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

29

Example Policy
(Newcastle University,
Australia)

http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/academic-integrity/fraud-and-plagiarism.html

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

30

The Detective “Rule Of
Threes”
Assignments
Posted

Source
Attributed
Student
Identified

1 in 3 postings
detected
@MyBCU

1 in 3
attributed

1 in 27
cheaters
dealt with

1 in 3
students found


#contractcheating

31

Contract Cheating Seen
Through Freelancer.com (And
Similar Agency Sites)
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

32

Breakdown Of Contract
Cheating Attempts By Agency
Postings by Agency Mar 2005 – Jun 2013
Total of 18,729 detected items

Freelancer (+ previously
vWorker)
FREELANCER

10558

VWORKER

5468

GETACODER

1289

ESSAYBAY

725

SCRIPTLANCE

216

OTHER

vWorker (RentACoder)

294

LIVEPERSON

105

TRANSTUTORS

had a “no homework”policy
but private auctions

Kasamba (Liveperson)

45

ODESK

29
0

main sites examined
easy to search
give most details of users
tracking sub-contractors

“tutorial” site
2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

Number of
postings

Student Of Fortune +
Transtutors
sells homework solutions

Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2013), Commercial Aspects Of Contract Cheating, ITiCSE 2013, Canterbury, United Kingdom
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

33

Postings On Freelancer
(January 2007 to June 2013)
5000000

Incorporation of
vWorker postings

4500000

Project ID (sequence)

4000000
3500000

Incorporation of
ScriptLance postings

3000000
2500000
2000000
1500000

Incorporation of
LimeExchange
postings

1000000

Items below trend
line not detected
when first posted

500000
0
Jan, 07

Jan, 08

Jan, 09

Jan, 10

Jan, 11

Jan, 12

Jan, 13

Date Posting Detected
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

34

Types Of Computing
Assignments Observed
(Sample of 910
Computing cases
collected on
RentACoder from Mar
04 to Dec 06)
Site used primarily for
computer
contracting, so
assignments
dominated by
Computing academic
discipline
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2007), Assessing Contract Cheating Through Auction Sites – A Computing Perspective, 8th Annual
Conference of the Higher Education Academy for Information and Computer Sciences, Southampton, United Kingdom

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

35

EssayBay Study
N Business & Admin studies

(Sample of 627 “all
subject” cases collected
on EssayBay over 5
months in 2010, and
manually classified by
UCAS Subject Category

L Social Studies
V Hist & Philosophical studies
B Subjects allied to Medicine
X Education
C Biological Sciences
Q Linguistics, Classics & related
G Mathematical & Comp Sci

M Law
H Engineering
K Architecture,Build & Plan
F Physical Sciences
W Creative Arts & Design
P Mass Comms and Documentation
R European Langs, Lit & related
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

EssayBay no longer
operational, but this is
an example of an
Agency site exclusively
set up for student
assignments

Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2012), Dealing with Contract Cheating: A Question of Attribution, 1 st HEA STEM Conference
April 2012, London, United Kingdom
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

36

Key Observations From
Collected Agency Site Studies
Early research showed that students were not getting caught
the “average” student posted between 4-7 assignments before their
cheating was attributed

Computing students first to take advantage of agency sites
Particularly for C/C++, Java programming
Notable spikes for undergraduate projects
Examples observed up to PhD level

More recent observations suggests, everything from
“anthropology to theology”
However, cheating is dominated by “Business Studies”
requests, including MBA level
Computing students may now be smart enough to not be directly
observed
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

37

The Contract Cheating
Process Is Becoming A
“Profitable Business Model”

Student

Essay Mill
Site

Agency Site

Intermediary
Contractor

Worker

These links between the
people involved in
Agency site use for
contract cheating have
been observed

Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2013), Commercial Aspects Of Contract Cheating, ITiCSE 2013, Canterbury, United Kingdom
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

38

A “Frequent Worker”
Who Specialises In
Academic Work

http://www.freelancer.co.uk/u/sdk2788.html

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

39

Analysis Of 25 Days Of
Freelancer.com Work
Completed By sdk2788
Job Title

USD

Capstone Task 3

396

academic report writing

AUS

GBP
245

166

98

Australian Law question

120

74

Bus Report

100

62

statistics.....

110

Academic Analysis on a company

125

New Project2

77
180

Quick critique of 2 short papers

38

research report 4500 words

write a scholarly literature review about (The use
of quick response systems (clickers) in education)

65
107
23

325
105

193
65

Total Earnings
Mean Per Job

100.9

Earnings Per Day

@MyBCU

1009

Note the varied
selection, including
contributing a staged
task to a capstone
project (equivalent of
BSc Final Year Project)
sdk2788 is also active
on other agency sites,
so earnings figure is
likely underrepresented

40.36


#contractcheating

40

“Paid For” Assignments
Are A Fast Turnaround
Business Model
Are our assignments
so easy that Frequent
Workers can
turnaround one or
two per day?

Note the positioning
of this advert towards
Workers in the
Philippines

https://www.odesk.com/o/jobs/job/_~011e1767b194a671d1

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

41

Link Between This
Intermediary Contractor
And Agency Site
Note that the
Intermediary
Contractor actually
appears to be in
Canada
Offers a variety of
services, not just Essay
Writing

http://newcodelogic.com

@MyBCU

https://www.facebook.com/pages/NewCodeLogic/378310608867860


Is this a business
jumping on the
contract cheating
bandwagon?

#contractcheating

42

Adaptive Business
Model
Assignment Arbitrage
Intermediate Contractor advertises to deliver assessed work for
students
Offers to complete the work for a high price
Outsources the work using an Agency Site or Frequent Workers
for a low price
Intermediate Contractor pockets the difference
($50 per page offered on oDesk by NewCodeLogic appears to be overpaying!)
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

43

Issues And Solutions For The
Computing Discipline
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

44

Academics To “Be The
Detective” For Their
Own Assignments
Awareness across the sector is necessary
Academics best placed to support finding their own assignment
specifications online

Monitor known Agency Sites and local Private Tutors
Do you want employers and prospective students finding your
assignments online?

Embed unusual phrases/words/identifiers in Assignment
Specifications and use Google Alerts
Academics to report on success of anti-contract cheating
measures during the assessment moderation process
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

45

Use Of “Individualised
Assignments”
All assignment specifications created to be unique to that
module (academics to take responsibility)
No textbook assignments/three year old cycled assignments
Students have access to archives through sites and social media

Use simple scripting to give students unique
combinations of assignment requirements
Allow the identification of individual cheating assignments
Embed visible and invisible watermarks, and contact details

There is scope for a toolkit to automatically create these
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

46

Example Individualisation – Number Systems Quiz

Individualised
set of data

Individualised
set of questions

Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R.(2010), Staff Led Individualised Assessment – A Case Study, 1th Annual Conference of the Higher
Education Academy for Information and Computer Sciences, Durham University, United Kingdom
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

47

Create A Searchable
Database Of Assignment
Specifications

Our Latest Recommendation
Upload all assignment Specifications to Turnitin
System to automatically archive and search Agency Sites still needed
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 (ICPCA07), Birmingham City University,, United Kingdom
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

48

Example Of Turnitin Used
For Successful Attribution
Small %ages can
be significant
matches occurs
when student paper
contains parts of
assignment brief
Recommend that:
(1) Staff upload assignment briefs to Turnitin as
soon as the assignment is released to students
(2) Staff then run all student submissions through
Turnitin and look for identifiers of known agency
sites and essay mills used for contract cheating
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

49

Educate Students
About Contract
Cheating
Students do not always seem to believe that their
lecturers understand and use the same technologies that
they do
Teach students about contract cheating at the same time as
they are taught about plagiarism
Instil upon them the value of doing their own work

Let students know the consequences of being caught, to
them and their fellow students
Some universities have had success with “name and shame”

Make Contract Cheating explicit in Academic Misconduct
policies, and educate administrative staff
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

50

Cheating Expands Into
The Workplace
(Requested For Same Person)
Systems Development paper
Select a sample system for
development that would benefit a
business of your choice. Prepare a
plan for determining the feasibility
of the systems development.
Present and explain both business
and system planning documents
and/or templates that allows you
to state the objectives, goals and
tactics. Explain how they are used
and show examples. Please
comment on how you would
present risks and mitigation
strategies to users

@MyBCU

DB help
I need help with an exisiting database form. The form
needs to be searchable by patient name. And the
follow-up visits section shows 3 slots they would rather
have one that shows ALL the follow-up visits. Let me
know if more info is needed. The database information
is CONFIDENTIAL. Thanks


1600 “live”
oncology records
from hospital in
California

#contractcheating

51

Investigate The Use Of
Stylometrics

Freestyler software developed by Thomas Lancaster and Fintan Culwin
Culwin, F. (2008), Inverse Authorship Attribution – At Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R., Contract Cheating Workshop, Birmingham City University, 7 March 2008

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

52

Stylometric Work At
London South Bank
University
“If routinely, every single piece of output of every single
student in an institution was retained and
analysed, then you’d have the statistical basis to say that
the stylometric differences between this piece of writing
by this student compared with their previous bits of
writing is so extreme that it starts to become evidential.”
Professor Fintan Culwin
PC Pro – How Schools Beat The Net Cheats, Feb 2010
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/355597/how-schools-beat-the-net-cheats/4#ixzz2ivUq6nef

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

53

Stylometric Work At
Pace University
“The approach, developed by Charles C. Tappert, a
professor, and several graduate students, tracks the typing and
style choices of users to authenticate their identity.
Mr. Tappert has worked with various students for several years
to develop a keystroke biometric system that tracks how long
users hold down and release individual keys—their ‘dwell
time’—and their transition from each key to the next.
Others have gone that route, but this year his team added a
“stylometric” component, to measure tendencies in users’
May be
writing, which could include types of words used or frequent
applicable
misspellings.”

to growth
of MOOCs

The Chronicle Of Higher Education, 20 May 2011
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/pace-u-researchers-work-on-new-way-to-stop-online-cheating/31421

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

54

Alternative Assessment
Types
Set assessment types that students who have
committed contract cheating cannot easily pass
Exams, not coursework
Viva examinations (perhaps bringing together a whole year
of knowledge?)
Practical tests
Programming test, involving making simple modifications
to submitted coursework
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.

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

55

Be Alert For New Developments
In Student Cheating

http://joshmaymedia.com/whiteWeasel/index.html

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

56

Further Resources
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

57

For More Information
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_cheating
Contract Cheating Special Interest Group (supported by the Higher
Education Academy):
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgibin/webadmin?A0=CONTRACTCHEATING
Slides Available At:
http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

58

Upcoming Introductory
Workshop
Contract Cheating Within The Computing
Discipline Workshop
Workshop provided by Higher Education Academy
STEM Funding
Thursday 13 March 2014
Birmingham City University
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/13_March_Computing_Contract_Birmingham

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

59

Thomas Lancaster
Contact Details
Email: thomas.lancaster@bcu.ac.uk
Website: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
Twitter: @DrLancaster

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

60

The Threat Of Contract Cheating - Examining The Paid For Assignment Solutions Unduly Populating The Computing Discipline - University Of West London - 22 November 2013

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (16)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (6)

Ähnlich wie The Threat Of Contract Cheating - Examining The Paid For Assignment Solutions Unduly Populating The Computing Discipline - University Of West London - 22 November 2013

Ähnlich wie The Threat Of Contract Cheating - Examining The Paid For Assignment Solutions Unduly Populating The Computing Discipline - University Of West London - 22 November 2013 (20)

Mehr von Thomas Lancaster

Mehr von Thomas Lancaster (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

The Threat Of Contract Cheating - Examining The Paid For Assignment Solutions Unduly Populating The Computing Discipline - University Of West London - 22 November 2013