by Thomas Lancaster -

The Application Of Intelligent Context-Aware Systems To The Detection Of Student Cheating

Lancaster, T. (2013). The Application Of Intelligent Context-Aware Systems To The Detection Of Student Cheating, 3rd International Workshop on Intelligent Context-Aware Systems (ICAS 2013), Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan, July 2013.

Student cheating and plagiarism present a combined threat to the value of academic awards. The technological age has increased the ease with which students can cheat. Although some computerised solutions exist to detect plagiarism and cheating in its other forms, many of these are easily fooled. For other types of cheating, technical solutions are not yet widely available. This suggests that students are receiving awards that they do not deserve. This paper presents three different examples of student cheating, all of which provide academics with a problem. These issues include: (1) plagiarism of documents through automated essay spinning, (2) social media facilitated student cheating groups, and (3) contract cheating using agency and auction web sites. Each of these problems is shown to benefit from the provision of intelligent context-aware systems. The context behind each problem is explored and suggestions for technical implementations of intelligent context-aware systems for each are provided.

The Application Of Intelligent Context-Aware Systems To The Detection Of Student Cheating

by Thomas Lancaster -

Dealing With Contract Cheating: A Question Of Attribution

Lancaster, T & 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, April 2012.

The issue of attribution, identifying the institutions which students who attempt to outsource work are from, poses a major difficulty for detectives monitoring online sites used for contract cheating. This form of academic misconduct occurs when students get other people to complete assessed work for them. Previous studies on contract cheating have focused on student use of Internet-based outsourcing services. The studies have demonstrated that those sites primarily provide students with work for subjects falling within the computing spectrum.

This paper focuses on a study of 627 sample postings made on EssayBay, a commercial site aimed at providing assignment writing solutions for students. The study identifies that students across a range of academic subjects and levels of study, far beyond the computing field, are using EssayBay for purposes of contract cheating. Only 23.7% of the postings investigated are found to be attributable, that is, they can be traced back to the academic institution to which the assignment specification belongs. This suggests that there are issues across the sector with the way that assignments are set and made available for detectives.

Based on the study, two factors for measuring the attributability of a posting on a contract cheating are proposed, namely searchability and individuality. Searchability measures how easily a posting can be found using a search engine. Individuality measures how unique an assignment specification is. Generally, both searchability and individuality are necessary to allow assignment specifications to be attributed. The paper concludes by making recommendations detailing how academic departments can combat contract cheating by improving the attributability of the assignment specifications that they release.

Dealing With Contract Cheating: A Question Of Attribution

by Thomas Lancaster -

Establishing a Systematic Six-Stage Process for Detecting Contract Cheating

Clarke, R, & 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, July 2007.

This paper proposes a systematic six-stage process that tutors can use to detect students who are contract cheating. Contract cheating is where students have original work completed for them and submit it, without acknowledgement, for academic credit. A background to the problem is presented along with the current problems of preventing and detecting contract cheating. Examples of how pervasive computing techniques have made it easier for students to cheat are given. A description of how contract cheating is currently detected is presented, with shortcomings of these methods detailed. The paper formalises new six-stage contract cheating detection process developed to parallel approaches taken in the plagiarism literature.

Establishing a Systematic Six-Stage Process for Detecting Contract Cheating