This talk, presented at the Higher Education Academy Contract Cheating workshop at Birmingham City University on 13 March 2014, provides training on what contract cheating is and examples of how this differs from plagiarism. Different methods used by students to have outsourced work produced for them are provided. A brief overview into the research looking at the extent and costs of contract cheating is provided.

1. The Current Landscape Of
Contract Cheating
Contract Cheating Within The Computing Discipline Workshop

2. By the end of the workshop, attendees should be familiar
with:
The concept of contract cheating in academia and why this is a problem
for academic integrity
How contract cheating differs from traditional cheating methods, such as
plagiarism
Examples of contract cheating
Some of the main research results in the emerging field of contract
cheating
Methods that can be used when development assessments for students
which make contract cheating difficult or impossible for them
Techniques that can be used to monitor and detect when students are
contract cheating
and much more…
Workshop Objectives

3. You are encouraged to ask questions and to discuss this
workshop with your colleagues!
Special Note

4. What Is Contract Cheating?

5. Contract Cheating occurs when students have academic
work created on their behalf, which they then claim as their
own…
Contract Cheating

6. What Does Contract Cheating Look
Like?

7. Assignment from ―Mass Media and Society‖ course at Widener University, Philadelphi
Example from http://dailydot.com/lifestyle/college-professors-black-market-paper
Published February 6, 2014

9. The photo is French philosopher Gilles Deleuze.
Deleuzienne is recorded as having completed 594 assignments successfully

10. What Did It Cost?
Paid $130 through a competitive bidding process for a five
page paper (plus cover page and references)

12. Rated
Rated A- by Dwight Dewerth-Pallmeyer, Widener University
Paper did not raise any red flags using Turnitin

14. Don‘t Need An Essay?
Writing-Help.co.uk

15. Contract Cheating And
Plagiarism

16. Plagiarism is usually defined as:
―taking the words or ideas of another and using them without
acknowledgement or permission‖
Within academia, many would also claim that there should
be an ―attempt to deceive‖, although this is often a tough
area of academic judgement
Plagiarism

17. A student borrows an assignment that a classmate
completed last year. She hands it in for academic credit. It is
a good assignment and she passes.
Examples Of Plagiarism (1)

18. Two students work together on a chemistry experiment to
collect data. The students then take the data and write up
their own report.
Examples Of Plagiarism (2)

19. A student writes a report on marine environments. The
student has English as a second language and relies heavily
on fragments of text from Google to complete the essay,
although he does provide a web link for each one.
Examples Of Plagiarism (3)

20. In all of these cases, a source can be identified for each
copied document:
The report from the previous year
The source data
The source web pages
A source is often required for a university to consent to hear
a cheating case.
In each case, appropriate academic steps can now be
taken…
Plagiarism Is Findable…

21. What is the source for a piece of assessed work created by
contract cheating?
By its nature, contract cheating is work written to order for a particular student.
It is as original as work submitted by any other student on that assignment.
But… it is not the work of the student – so it should not result in them gaining
academic credit… (or depriving another student from a job they deserve)
Contract Cheating Is Not
Findable...

22. Contract Cheating Sources

23. Opportunities for students to contract cheat are all around.
Some of these need to be looked for, others come to them.
Some opportunities are paid. Some are even free.
And, it is possible to get high quality work very cheaply.
Where Do Cheats Go?

24. Essay mills are not a new concept.
The availability of the Internet has made e-commerce access to essay writing
services easier.
There are legitimate reasons to use writing services
Ghostwriters for published books
Production of web content for search engine optimisation purposes
Essay writing services can be based worldwide
A student may buy from a UK site, but this may be written by a non-native English
speaker.
Essay writing services don‘t just write essays
You can get lots of different types of coursework from them.
Cheats #1 – Essay Writing
Services

25. These come, go and change so regularly, that any attempt to
list all these services is pointless.
A search for ―essay writing‖ in Google will reveal hundreds of
examples.
Essay writing services range from one-person companies, to
those which employ hundreds of writers.
Often, the same service promotes itself under multiple
names for marketing reasons.
List Of Essay Writing Services

26. gumtree.co.uk
Not Just Web Sites

27. Very common, particularly in some cultures.
Students who studied this last year (previous experience)
Students who are studying this year (two for the price of one)
Family members (sense of obligation)
May be free or paid
Cheats #2 – Friends And Family

28. Ghostwriter for a large essay writing service.
Below is from a live web chat.
Q: how did you come to this job?
A: Very naturally. When I was in college, all I wanted to do was write. There were so
few meaningful outlets for this much less paying outlets. But my classmates sought
me out and offered me money to write for them. . . once word of my services spread
through the fraternities, I was in business.
How Ed Dante Got Started
http://chronicle.com/article/Live-Chat-With-an-Academic/125342

29. A lot of students now make use of private tutors
Compared with university fees, this modest investment can be a good one
Plenty of tutors around for Maths and Science subjects
Common in STEM
Tuition can be over the Internet
Screen sharing technology
Can be much cheaper than home tuition
Cheats #3 – Private Tutors

30. MyPrivateTutor.org.uk

31. TutorMe.co.uk

32. How much of the work is the student doing?
How much of the work is the tutor doing?
Where is the dividing line?
Problems With Private Tutors

33. Services exist for proof reading and copy editing.
They can take a poor piece of work from a student – and
leave it in an excellent standard.
Universities often offer these services (Academic Support
Centres), or they can be found externally.
Some copyediting services are explicitly focused towards
students.
Many offer copyediting as a wider service for any kind of commercial writing.
Cheats #4 – Copyediting
Services

34. ProofreadMyEssay.co.uk

35. These auction style sites largely started originally as
outsourcing sites for computer contractors to find work
online:
Create a program
Make a website
Develop a database
Can be used legitimately by small businesses to get work
done.
Now also include all sorts of other services:
Report writing
Graphic design
Also used by students for contract cheating!
Cheats #5 – Agency Sites

36. The person requiring a service (the buyer) posts a bid
request:
This describes the project and how much the buyers wants to pay.
Contractors ask questions and bid to complete the service.
Contractors compete on price, but also quality through a Ratings system
The buyer chooses a contractor and pays for the work.
The funds are placed in escrow.
The contractor completes the work.
The product is released to the buyer and the funds to the
contractor.
―Work for hire‖ has been completed.
The Typical Auction Process

37. vWorker.com
A Good Research Project?

38. Study From The Guardian (6 May 2008).
Asked for a Computer Science homework on vWorker.com
(formerly RentACoder.com).
11 bids in under 1 hour, 38 bids in 2 days.
Worldwide, everywhere from Vietnam to the USA (chosen).
Required price between $10 and $40.
"I would have given the program code element of the
coursework about 50%‖.
Robert Clarke, Birmingham City University.
What Do You Get?

39. Of course, students can use all kinds of other methods to
find people to write cheaply for them.
Classified sites and online forums are good examples.
Cheats #6 – Reverse Classifieds

40. Forums.DigitalPoint.Com

41. What Can Students Cheat On?

42. Thomas Lancaster and Robert Clarke, from Birmingham City
University, have circulated many examples of attempts at
contract cheating they‘ve found.
Including cases where academics have tried hard to prevent plagiarism.
Examples include:
A huge variety of academic disciplines (STEM and elsewhere) and countries
worldwide.
Final Year Projects and other assignments, submitted piece-by-piece.
Requests for software, essays, web sites and presentations.
Many assignment specifications are susceptible to contract
cheating.
Exhaustive List…

43. From Ed Dante (ghostwriter) web chat.
Q: we generally believe that engaging students in the PROCESS of writing (i.e. they
submit research questions, an annotated list of sources, an outline, a draft—all over
several weeks time) that instances of academic dishonesty will decline significantly.
from your experience, does that ring true? how often have you been contracted to
fabricate the whole process prewriting, drafting, revising, etc.?
A: This does not prevent cheating. Quite to the point, I have been engaged in this
exact 'process' more times than I can count over the course of these last few years.
I have completed many an assignment from proposal to final draft.
Staged Assignments Not Answer
http://chronicle.com/article/Live-Chat-With-an-Academic/125342

44. Contract Cheating Research

45. A number of studies have been carried out into the contract
cheating phenomena.
Academic studies
Media studies
These investigate the extent of contract cheating and the
quality of work produced.
Contract Cheating Studies

46. The term ―Contract Cheating‖ was first coined during two
studies by Robert Clarke and Thomas Lancaster, published
in 2006.
The studies focused on an analysis of postings to the
RentACoder agency site (now part of Freelancer.com) to
identify and trace assignment specifications.
Contract Cheating Background
http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/conference2006/documents/papers/2006paper
s05.pdf

47. The first study exhaustively checked 803 bid requests over a
3 work period to see if these represented student
assignments.
99 out of 803 (12.3%) of bid requests were identified as
contract cheating attempts.
This suggests that contract cheating contributes to a
substantial amount of vWorker‘s income.
Use Of Agency Sites

48. A second study identified 236 users who had placed contract
cheating requests on RentACoder over a 2 month period.
A check of those users previous bid requests revealed the
following results:
1. 122 out of 236 users (51.7%) had placed between 2 and
7 bid requests, suggesting frequent (―habitual‖) use of
this site.
2. 6 out of 236 users (2.5%) has placed 51 or more bid
requests. This suggested that these users were
subcontractors.
Contract Cheating Site Users

49. A subsequent 2007 study by Lancaster and Clarke focused
primarily on 910 bid requests on RentACoder.
All of the bid requests were made in the time period March
2004 to December 2006, and all were in the Computing
discipline.
231 out of 910 (25.4%) bid requests were made by UK
based users.
75 out of 352 (21.3%) of institutions identified worldwide
were in the UK.
Contract Cheating In Computing
http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/events/8th-annual-
conf/Papers/Thomas%20Lancaster%20final.pdf

50. Within the Computing discipline, the following types of
assignments were identified from UK posts:
1. 52 out of 231 (22.5%) bid requests represented
programming in the Java language.
2. 22 out of 231 (9.5%) bid requests were for Final Year
Projects – many of which asked for work to be completed
in stages.
Types Of Assignments
Outsourced

51. A 2012 study by Lancaster and Clarke tracked 627
assignment requests placed over 5 months on EssayBay.
Top subjects identified included (1) Business and Admin
Studies, (2) Social Studies, (3) History and Philosophical
Studies and (4) Subjects Aligned to Medicine.
Work was identified at all levels from undergraduate to PhD
proposal level.
Contract Cheating On EssayBay
http://www-new1.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/stem-
conference/Computing1/Thomas_Lancaster_Robert_Clarke.pdf

52. Is Contract Cheating Good
Value?

53. In 2005, Charles Oppenheim, of Loughborough University,
got three of his students to outsource a 1500 word written-to-
order essay on copyright law.
Prices ranged from £135 to £205.
Oppenheim marked the essays at 42%, 55% and 58%.
All below the 60% (2:1) standard.
One essay contained elements plagiarised from a paper in an academic journal.
Essay Writing Services
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4420845.stm

54. ―We are sometimes asked to write at an overseas student
level and the mistakes are done on purpose. We have
thousands of essays at different levels and attaining different
grades from fail to distinction. The client gets what he/she
orders.‖
Essays-r-us Response
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1487289/Students-waste-money-buying-internet-
essays.html

55. Tony Jenkins and Stuart Helmore from the University of
Leeds conducted a 2006 study of agency sites, buying
computer source code for various first year programming
assignments
Study funded by HEA-ICS Development Fund.
RentACoder and GetACoder used.
Assignments were cheap.
First assignment cost £8.91 and £16.12.
Final task cost just £4.74.
The student was marked in class (sometimes twice!)
They were not caught, and achieved good marks.
Computer Code
http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/Events/HEADublin2006_V2/papers/Tony%20Jenkins%20
23.pdf

56. The Daily Mail identified Xenia on RentACoder (―more like an
escort girl than an academic‖) for $30 (£16.25) to write an ‗A‘
Level essay on George Orwell‘s 1984.
Xenia from near Manila in the Philippines.
Local average daily wage £3 (so over 1 week‘s wages).
Offered to write in the style of the author.
Other bids in the region of $20 to $100
Included a Romanian who had won several national literature awards.
One writer even sent across an essay unsolicited - and just asked for $20 if it was
used.
Using Agency Sites For Essays
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-391085/The-cybercheats-making-small-fortune.html

57. A 2013 study by Robert Clarke and Thomas Lancaster took
a sample of 336 jobs posted by intermediary contractors on
Freelancer.com.
These cost an average of $101.40.
Current Pricing
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2462497

58. Producing Assignments

59. The Chronicle of Higher Education completed an
investigation working with a ghostwriter and looking inside
the bestessays.com essay mill.
Operates internally much like an auction site.
Students submit work.
BestEssays provides the details to its pool of writers, who choose jobs to take on.
Students pay $19.99 to $42.99 a page.
The site is duplicated under multiple names and web site addresses.
Appears based in the USA, but actually based in Manila in the Phillipines.
On site workers paid $1 to $3 per page.
Other writers paid from ―a few‖ to $40 per page, depending on company and
subject.
Inside The Essay Mill
http://chronicle.com/article/Cheating-Goes-Global-as-
Essay/32817

60. James Robbins
30 years old.
Started writing to pay for tuition at Lamar University, Texas.
Writes 10 pages per hour.
Charles Parmenter
54 years old.
Formerly a police officer and lawyer.
Writes nursing, business and English Literature papers.
Has been told his papers are too good ―My professor will never believe it‘s me‖.
Typical took home pay of around $1,000 per month.
US Writer Profiles

61. Research Analysis

62. Contract cheating can be good value…
Much depends on the sophistication of the student and the sites they use.
Students are often technically more sophisticated than staff.
Auction sites and private arrangements possible.
Standard of work can vary.
Excellent work is suspicious!
Potential exists for subject specific research studies into
contract cheating.
Consider extent of contract cheating in the discipline, quality of work produced and
the range of sources used by students.
Research Findings

63. Any Questions?