by Thomas Lancaster -

When Essays For Sale Become Contract Cheating – BBC News

Here is one of the more interesting contract cheating media studies of 2012, provided by BBC News and looking at essays for sale and contract cheating (a video version of the same news story is also available).

When Essays For Sale Become Contract Cheating BBC News

The story discusses the wide range in which students become knowledgeable about contract cheating opportunities, including advertisements placed in the window of shops.

Most usefully are the type of assignments received back from such services. This is something that is very difficult for academics to test due to the ethical implications.

This revealed a £70 and £125 assignment, both of which were of a low standard, but good enough to pass. A third assignment, also costing £70, was judged to be of a 2:1 standard.

This does demonstrate a variety in the quality of assignments received across different subject areas, showing that there are some elements of “pot luck” involved with picking essay writing companies, but if students are just aiming to pass an assignment, spending this money could be worthwhile.

And, our other contract cheating research involving auction sites have shown that there are ways to spend far less than this.

by Thomas Lancaster -

Contract Cheating An Academic Offence – London South Bank

Whilst not all universities seem to be seriously tackling contract cheating, it’s good to see that some are making their interest in his problematic area public.

Here’s an example of a notice posted by London South Bank University and indexed by Google which clearly shows the seriousness of contract cheating.

Contract Cheating An Academic Offence London South Bank

Dismissal from a course represents a serious risk if found to be cheating and goes far above the penalty that it sometimes applied of simply having to repeat an assignment (many would say that that almost makes the risk of contract cheating worth taking).

It is also good to see the push toward “self-satisfaction” which should be evident after degree level studies.

It is hoped that more institutions will follow the lead of London South Bank University and post similar messages to show that they are taking academic integrity seriously.

by Thomas Lancaster -

Contract Cheating Through Friends And Family

One of the areas in which there’s still much scope to carry out more research is to analyse the role that friends and family play in the contract cheating process.

There is certainly anecdotal evidence that friends and family are often happy to help out when an assessed piece of work is due. In some cases, this might even be expected.

Given access to someone who has completed a course before, or who is experienced in an area, a piece of coursework can often be completed quickly. And, that’s where the availability of friends and family come in.

Unlike many of the sources that we’ve looked at to analyse the extent of contract cheating, there’s very little of an evidence trail left for this. And, for various reasons, money does not usually change hands. But, this is still work that a student is handing in for academic credit and which they have not produced for themselves. They’ve missed out on the learning and practice opportunities that should be associated with this piece of work and the opportunity at university that they have invested in.

There are many difficulties with getting hold of such information in an accurate fashion, but identifying the role that friends and family play in the learning and contract cheating processes would be a useful piece of research for someone to carry out.