This research presentation focuses on the financial market behind contract cheating, exposing the scale of the problem of students having original work produced which they hand in as if they had written it for themselves. The research is based around over 19,000 attempts by students to cheat collected by the presenters alongside recent external investigations including one associated with Times Higher Education. The presentation is intended to raise awareness amongst academics of the scale and problem of contract cheating, original work which cannot be detected by current plagiarism detection solutions such as Turnitin.

1. Cutting The Cost Of Essay Writing
Examining The Financial Market Behind
Contract Cheating
Thomas Lancaster & Robert Clarke
Birmingham City University
RESCON 2013
Tuesday 17 December 2013
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2. Who Are We?
Robert Clarke
Dr. Thomas Lancaster
Senior Lecturer in Computing
PhD “Effective And Efficient Plagiarism
Detection”
Programme Leader BSc Computer Science
Leader of Innovations in Computing
Education Group
@MyBCU
Educational Consultant
Visiting Lecturer/Former Principal Lecturer
30 Years Experience Teaching At BCU
Collected 19,000 Attempts at Contract
Cheating
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3. This Activity Happens At BCU…
Business cards distributed outside City Centre Campus during
Induction Week
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4. Students Pay For Assessed
Work
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.
@MyBCU
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#contractcheating
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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 bespoke work, this cheating will not be detected as
plagiarised when running student submissions through Turnitin
Our research studies, published since 2006, focus mainly
on students using agency sites, where workers
competitively bid to complete work for students
Also observed contract cheating delivered by Private Tutors, friends and family,
through essay mills etc.
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6. Contract Cheating Study Conducted
With Times Higher Education
“Essay Mills: University Course Work To
Order”
10 October 2013
Five page undergraduate essay (history), upper
second standard
£70 (lower end)
£160 (higher end)
“Premier” writing service - £50 an hour
Postgraduate dissertation – 25,000 words, £2,800
Estimate provided of around 11,500 essays written
by essay mills for UK students every year
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/essay-mills-university-coursework-to-order/2007934.fullarticle
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7. Contract Cheating Quality Study
Conducted With BBC News
“When Essays For Sale Become Contract Cheating”
Three assignments produced by essay mills, paid for by the BBC
Quality assessed by Robert Clarke
Two essays (both cost £70)
One judged “weak”, one judged 2:1
One computer programming assignment (at £125)
Assessed as “rubbish”
However, all purchased work considered passable
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20298237
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8. Our Database Of Eight Years Of Visible
Contract Cheating Data
Postings by Agency Mar 2005 – Jun 2013
Total of 18,729 detected items
Freelancer (which has since
incorporated vWorker)
FREELANCER
10558
VWORKER
5468
GETACODER
1289
ESSAYBAY
vWorker (which incorporated
RentACoder)
725
SCRIPTLANCE
294
LIVEPERSON
216
OTHER
105
TRANSTUTORS
had a “no homework” policy
but homework could be concealed
inside private auctions
Kasamba (Liveperson)
45
ODESK
29
0
main agency sites examined
easy to search
give most details of users
actively 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
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9. What Subjects Do Students
Cheat On?
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
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10. Example Of 25 Days Of Bids Won By
A Freelancer Specialising In
Academic Work
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
38
research report 4500 words
write a scholarly literature review about (The use
of quick response systems (clickers) in education)
65
77
180
Quick critique of 2 short papers
107
23
325
105
193
65
Total Earnings
1009
Mean Per Job
100.9
Earnings Per Day
@MyBCU
sdk2788 on
Freelancer .com
40.36
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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
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11. Are There Victims If We
Ignore Contract Cheating?
An Assignment For 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”
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12. Some Recommendations
For BCU Academics
Consider that a group of technologically savvy students
are now taking your assignments
Review the literature base on contract cheating and
plagiarism
Actively look for your assignment specifications online
Check that students understand their submitted
coursework (e.g. through viva-voces exams and tests
depending on understanding the coursework)
Inform students that you are aware of contract cheating,
and use the BCU academic misconduct processes
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13. Further Resources
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14. 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
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15. Upcoming Introductory
Workshop
Contract Cheating Within The Computing
Discipline Workshop
Workshop funded by the Higher Education Academy
STEM discipline
Thursday 13 March 2014
Birmingham City University
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/13_March_Computing_Contract_Birmingham
@MyBCU
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16. 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
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#contractcheating
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