Contract Cheating Within The Computing Discipline – Examining The Threats And Solutions For Face-To-Face And Distance Learning Courses - The Open University - 24/10/13

Contract Cheating Within The
Computing Discipline
Examining The Threats And Solutions For
Face-To-Face And Distance Learning Courses
Thomas Lancaster & Robert Clarke
The Open University
Thursday 24 October 2013
@MyBCU

www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity

#contractcheating

1

A Bit Of Background
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

2

What We’re Covering…
An introduction to contract cheating, informed by four main
studies within the Innovations in Computing Education research
group at Birmingham City University and our own experience.
The seminar is intended for Computing academics
(examples are selected to particularly look at the implications for Distance
Learning courses)

The focus is on:
Understanding the contract cheating processes and the people involved
Measuring the extent of contract cheating formed from available research
data
Helping Computing educators to address the upcoming challenges of
contract cheating (including our big challenge)

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

3

Who Are We?
Dr. Thomas Lancaster

Robert Clarke

Senior Lecturer in Computing
PhD “Effective And Efficient
Plagiarism Detection”
Programme Leader Computer Science

Educational Consultant
Visiting Lecturer/Principal Lecturer
30 Years Experience Teaching At BCU
19,000 Attempts at Contract Cheating

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

4

Does The Sector Care About
Contract Cheating?
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

5

Contract Cheating
Contract cheating occurs when a student has
original work produced for them, which they
then submit for academic credit
Since this is original work, it will not be detected as plagiarised
when running student submissions through Turnitin

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

6

Typical Contract Cheating
Through Essay Mills

If you thinking, "I just need someone to write my
essay?" ProfEssays.com is the right choice if you want to get the
best grade for your assignment. We strive to be the best partner
for your academic career. Try our services – buy your essay now!

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

7

“Essay Mills: University
Course Work To Order”
Times Higher Education
10 October 2013
“The damage contract cheating can
inflict on society is clear. Graduates
emerge from university with huge
(and in some disciplines, potentially
dangerous) gaps in their learning
and knowledge.”
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/essay-mills-university-coursework-to-order/3/2007934.article

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

8

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

9

Freedom Of Information
Act Request
Times Higher Education asked UK universities for
details of students disciplined for handing in custom
essays
29 students disciplined in 2011-2012
30 students disciplined in 2012-2013
“More than half” of 59 from outside the UK
13 students out of 59 expelled
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

10

How Do Universities React
To Contract Cheating?

“In one case at Newcastle University, for example, an
international student suspected of handing in work purchased
from the site Essays.uk.com was given a ‘final written warning’
but no other punishment.”

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/inthemedia

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

11

Need To Balance
These Interests…
Teaching
Staff

Admin
Staff

Students
Professional
Bodies

The Politics

Software
Providers

Media

Government
Agencies
Detectives

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

12

The Questions
Do universities always want to know about
contract cheating?
Do universities always make it possible for
detectives to tell them about contract cheating?

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

13

The Traceable Type Of
Contract Cheating
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

14

Agency Sites For
Commercial Work

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

15

Agency Sites Can Be
Used To Find
Legitimate Workers

http://www.freelancer.com

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

16

Contract Cheating
Using Agency Sites
1. Student posts assignment details
onto agency site

Workers
2. Workers make bids to do the work

3. Student selects bid
Payment is escrowed

$50
Student

Agency Site

4. Selected Worker does assignment

5. Student receives solution
Payment is released to Worker

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

17

Explicit Agency Sites For
Student Assignments

If you don't understand your assignment or
don't have enough time to complete it, let our
tutors take care of the work for you.

@MyBCU

Post your homework for free and wait for answers
from teachers. Most likely, more than one teacher
will answer your question. You will be able to see a
preview of the answers and purchase the one that
seems the best for you.


#contractcheating

18

Traceable Sites Provide
Detectives With Access To
Assignment Details
Project
Status

Budget
range

Student
alias
Details
other
postings

Selected
worker

@MyBCU

Agreed
price


#contractcheating

19

Postings By A Typical
Student
Student
"davidwood91“
posted 5
OPENGL
assignments
Mar-Apr 2013

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

20

Postings By A Less
Typical “Student”
Title

Paid

Coder

Date

Teaching Methods -- Literacy & Elementary Reading

$85 USD

Mar 18, 13

Teaching Methods--Literacy & Elementary Reading

$100 USD

geologistt
remnyakovav
w

Competency Exam Task

$175 USD

sdk2788

Jan 21, 12

Formal and informal assessment techniques for evaluating

$90 USD

sdk2788

Jan 5, 12

Bias in Testing

$90 USD

sdk2788

Dec 18, 11

Teaching Writing in the classroom

$60 USD

sdk2788

Nov 21, 11

Classroom Social Enviorment

$60 USD

sdk2788

Nov 14, 11

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT - Management Systems

$65 USD

sdk2788

Oct 6, 11

Classroom Management; Routines

$60 USD

sdk2788

Sep 9, 11

Experiential Learning
Setting & Communicating Expectations In the classroom
Essay

$50 USD

MrSir

Apr 19, 11

$35 USD

MrSir

Mar 4, 11

Legal Rights of Students with Disabilities essay

$50 USD

MrSir

Feb 10, 11

Human development and learning, short essay

$30 USD

hotline69

Feb 7, 11

Cognitive development, a compare & contrast essay

$40 USD

sdk2788

Jan 31, 11

@MyBCU


Mar 4, 13

“pennykw” posted
27 items from Jan
2011 to Mar 2013
Either one student
posting all his/her
assignments or an
Intermediary
Contractor
specialising in
education courses at
WGU (Western
Governors
University)

#contractcheating

21

Not All Contract
Cheating Is Traceable…
Friends and family
“Will you help me – you’ve studied this before?”

Assignment Writing Services Advertised On The
Internet
“How much will my essay cost?”

Private Tutors
“Can you come, teach me and help me to write this
write this for me?”
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

22

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

294

LIVEPERSON

105

TRANSTUTORS

has “no homework”policy
but closed 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 HW solutions

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


#contractcheating

23

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

24

The Extent And Value Of
Contract Cheating
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

25

First Contract Cheating Study
On RentACoder
Number of cases of Contract Cheating by Country where the source was identified
(912 cases from Mar 04 to Oct 06)
Country

nCases

%

USA

459

50%

United Kingdom

239

26%

Australia

101

11%

Canada

61

7%

Other

34

4%

Turkey

18

2%

Total

912

100%

Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2006), Eliminating the Successor to Plagiarism? Identifying the Usage of Contract Cheating Sites, in
Proceedings of 2nd International Plagiarism Conference, Gateshead, United Kingdom

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

26

The RentACoder
Findings
The “average” student posts 4-7 assignments
Students were not getting detected
They must have been getting “value for money”

Source mostly courses in English language
Mostly USA, UK, Australia
Other countries run courses in English
Turkey shows up because material is easily Googled

Small number of high number of postings
Identifies “contractors” who do post work for others
Usually work from different colleges and subjects
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

27

Study Of Computing
Assignments On RentACoder
(910 cases from Mar 04 to Dec 06)

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

28

Computing Findings
Programming in C++/Java most common type
Reflects the types of assignments Computing academics post
(40%)

32 “Major projects” were detected
Only 3.5% overall in this survey
But 9.5% (22 out of 231) bid requests from UK

Average number of postings per student down from
smaller sample
Because detectives are spotting more first-time offenders?
More students seemingly starting to use agency sites
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

29

EssayBay Study
(627 cases in 5 months)
Postings by UCAS Subject Category
N Business & Admin studies
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

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

30

Level Of EssayBay
Work
Postings by level
Undergraduate
Masters
GCSE A/A2
High Sch
PhD
Advanced Placement
GNVQ
PhD ?
International Bacc
0

@MyBCU

50

100

150

200

250


300

350

400

#contractcheating

450

500

31

EssayBay Findings
First study of an auction site dedicated to enabling contract
cheating
Rentacoder (now vWorker) 85% legitimate work
EssayBay ceased fully functioning in Aug 2010, but has been replaced by
other similar sites

Shows wide range of subjects involved
Maths & Computing only 5%
Business Studies main category (25%)
Everything from “anthropology to theology”

Range of levels of work
Difficult to verify (mostly self-reported by student)
Significant number at Masters level (21%)
Some PhD requests – mostly research proposals
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

32

EssayBay
Analysis By Source Institution
USA

UK

CAN

AUS

76%

Unknown
0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Only 24% of postings traced back to their originating institutions
“Attributability” of assignments found to be a key factor
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

33

The Detective Role
Most attribution requires lots of “legwork”
No current automated solution

Occasional success using Turnitin to scan
assignment briefs
But this depends on enough information having been
obtained within Turnitin to aid in attribution

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

34

An Estimate Of The
Detective Success
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

35

Business studies #
06724 (not traced)
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

36

Intermediary Contractors
And Frequent Workers
Study (2013)
Worker

Jobs

Value USD

sdk2788

21

5,195

raiseq

9

2,126

writingspirit

6

1,146

hotline69

5

424

saeedyasir

3

1,134

waqar21081974

3

419

dmjuma

3

245

writer048

2

628

jnk87

2

449

swiftcult22

2

196

PixelBrains

1

471

noureenpenwalla

1

314

Balistap40

1

68

Totals

59

12,814

Intermediary Contractors
agree, for a fee, to complete
multiple assignments for
multiple students.
Frequent Workers specialise in
undertaking student
assignments.
Contractor “cjylondon” made
59 postings between March
and July 2011, and largely used
the same workers

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


#contractcheating

37

Typical Range Of Postings
By An Intermediary
Contractor
cjylondon on Freelancer
Based on a sample of 59
postings made March to
June 2011

Total value of 12,814 USD
Average 217 USD
Included assignments
attributed to 18 different
UK universities.

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

38

Typical Frequent Worker
Activities
Assignments Completed By “sdk2788” Apr
– May 2013
Title
Academic Writing - Literature Short Answer Questions
Academic Writing - Book Report
Technical writing
Quality System in IT
10 Page Paper with References
IT MGMT Task 3
IT MGMT Task 1
Strategic Information Systems
The transition and influence of market economy in Russia
Casablanca Essay
English Literature
comparative essay
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
PESTEL analysis
Research paper - Marketing Mix Analysis
answer the questions in essay style
OIL, OPEC and World Economies
Writing a financial report
Global shifts have occurred in recent years fuelled partly by the
Land Economic Essay -1500 Words - Harvard Referencing

@MyBCU

Employer
hatcher
hatcher
richardgush
Thush73
awj118
Tguitari
Tguitari
munishluther
Alihan777
hatcher
caro155347
greenpaint
hatcher
munishluther
jale007bond
jus91
ustesol
TheMelt
Alihan777
Sunnitro
Average


Value USD
105
62
435
204
310
50
50
280
471
125
132
110
187
70
130
107
185
181
129
100
171
#contractcheating

39

The “Untraceable” Side Of
Contract Cheating Can
Sometimes Be Seen…
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

40

The Cast Of Players

Student

Essay Mill
Site
@MyBCU

Agency Site

Intermediary
Contractor

Worker

The student may
“outsource” the work
direct to the agency or
indirectly through a
essay-mill site or
intermediary contractor
#contractcheating

41

Contractor Links To
Essay-Mill Sites
Posting and details on Freelancer

Entry on Facebook

Essay-Mill Site

If your college or university teacher gives you an
assignment or project which is difficult to
solve, then come on our board of experts. Our team
of qualified and professional people provides all
kind of solution of any topic

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

42

Contractor To Essay
Mill Site Link

http://www.anavasis.gr/
@MyBCU

Thank you and welcome to the Site
The Student Tuition Anabasis.
Briefly provide support
Theses all levels and thematic fields
Student work within the semester with the
possibility to cover the work of all directions
Statistical Analysis - Statistical Studies
Translations from and into over 50 languages


#contractcheating

43

Contractor Example
Postings
The work is your one of our customers who is a
student, so it is a student work
Abstract: The thesis includes a study of the IEEE
802.11n standard on the operation at the physical
level and MAC layer of wireless local area
networks ... in MATLAB.
The below is a project for one of our
customers. The student needs the coding part
of his dissertation
Dissertaion title : Optimal Investment Planning
for Distributed Generation in a Competitive
Electricity Market

@MyBCU

We are an educational company and want
the below project for one of our clients
During this course, you will develop an
information portal on a topic of your choice
based on focused crawling technology.


#contractcheating

44

What Does This Mean For
Online Universities?
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

45

“A Quick Trawl”
These examples based on a quick 30 minute
trawl of common contract cheating sites and
essay mills on Thursday 17 October 2013

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

46

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

47

B120 – An Introduction
to Business Studies

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

48

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

49

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

50

http://www.cyberessays.com/lists/open-university-e214-tma/
@MyBCU


#contractcheating
51

51

Online Universities

Frequently found on “contract cheating” sites
Examples of multiple (10+) posting by one person
Often difficult to find contact details
Material found on Brainmass + StudentOfFortune
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

52

Addressing The Challenges
For Online And Face-To-Face
Universities
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

53

Common Sources
The same material is used by several colleges
Exercises from text books
Online tests associated with text books
Open Educational Resources

Stock answers likely on Brainmass, Chegg etc
Essay spinning reduces Turnitin matches

Searches find multiple hits
Need to “individualise” assignments
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

54

Further Technology
Assistance Needed
Putting assignment briefs on Turnitin
Helps “detectives” – like Bob
Warns academics if stock answers are available
May spot assignments on “contract cheating” sites
Often small percentages (1%) may be significant
Need to be able to recognise names of CC sites in the text

Watermark or tag assignment briefs
Identify source and student
Use modified PDF generator
Add feature to VLE (e.g. Moodle)
@MyBCU


#contractcheating

55

The Big Challenge?
MOOCs
From our experience we expect to find:
Multiple hits from Google, which will foil attribution
attempts
courses with the same names and codes
Same common phrases

Rise in “bespoke” assignment writers
Specialising in particular courses

Rise in stock solutions being offered
Rise in the use of Essay Spinning
Increased difficulties in finding contact information (email)
@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

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

@MyBCU


#contractcheating

60

Contract Cheating Within The Computing Discipline – Examining The Threats And Solutions For Face-To-Face And Distance Learning Courses - The Open University - 24/10/13

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Contract Cheating Within The Computing Discipline – Examining The Threats And Solutions For Face-To-Face And Distance Learning Courses - The Open University - 24/10/13