policy & reform campusreview. com. au
UniSA held a Snapchat-based campaign to raise awareness of contract cheating. Photo: @ melsybob
Defeat the cheats
Contract cheating – when a student outsources their work but claims it as their own – is in danger of becoming normalised, one academic argues.
By Loren Smith
More than 5 – 10 per cent of students engage in some form of contract cheating. So in a tutorial of 20 students, one or two are cheating in this manner.
Associate Professor Tracey Bretag provided this insight at a recent academic integrity forum at the University of New South Wales.
The director of the UniSA Business School Office for Academic Integrity also shared other findings from a survey of 15,000 students from eight universities and four higher education providers about cheating, as well as offering pointers from a good practice note on this subject that she co-authored with the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency( TEQSA).
She noted that although far more attention is given to cases of paid contract cheating like the MyMaster scandal(“ that’ s the stuff that’ s in our face and … hurts us so bad”), unpaid contract cheating, where work is completed by a student’ s friend or family member, is actually far more prevalent. It comprises 83 – 90 per cent of contract cheating cases.
Bretag is concerned that if contract cheating isn’ t dealt with more severely, it will become“ normalised”. That’ s why she advocates for the researchrecommended penalty of suspension for offenders. She stressed that this isn’ t about punishment. Rather, it’ s about giving the offender a chance to reflect on their actions, and thereafter return to university, supported, and hopefully with a reset moral compass.
Contrary to some people’ s conceptions, the survey revealed that offenders knew that what they were doing was wrong, and that cultural differences had no impact on this.
“ It makes me feel sad … It must make them feel pretty sick at heart,” she said.
“ They’ re having to cheat because they’ re struggling so hard.”
Nevertheless, those more likely to cheat in this way include students who speak a second language. For Bretag, this means these students clearly need more support. Other markers that indicate a greater cheating likelihood are dissatisfaction with the teaching and learning environment, and a perception that there’ s an opportunity to cheat.
Bretag provided strategies to tackle each issue. First, teachers need to develop more personal relationships with students; this has been shown to enhance student satisfaction and place teachers in the best position to identify such cheating.
Second, to counter the perception that you can get away with cheating, aside from the aforementioned suspension penalty and further support for second-language speakers, universities can:
• Raise student and staff awareness of contract cheating, including how to identify it and its penalties. This can be as simple as a mandatory 30-minute video, or in the case of UniSA, a student-led Snapchat campaign.
• Visually remind them about contract cheating, using various mediums. Deakin University, which has had to deal with this issue in the public eye, held a contract cheating awareness week.
• Change assessment design. The assessment types that make it harder to contract-cheat are reflections on practicums, vivas, assignments related to personal / individualised topics, and supervised, in-class assessments.
• Create a simple process for referring cases. Curtin University, for instance, outlines this in a simple‘ How to Manage Plagiarism’ flowchart( available at academicintegrity. curtin. edu. au).
• Communicate outcomes of contract cheating cases to the whole academic community(“ shout-out to Griffith”). Bretag emphasised that this is not about naming and shaming offenders. In fact, they need not be named. It is simply about inspiring people to trust in the process.
• Establish an office or even just a person specifically tasked with handling this issue, as UniSA and the University of Sydney have done.
• Push to make paid contract cheating websites illegal.
Another contract cheating misconception, according to Bretag, is that it’ s hard to establish.“ You just have to look at the balance of probabilities … to prove they didn’ t complete the work,” she said, referring to Wendy Sutherland-Smith’ s work in this area.
To Bretag, combating it is essential, not just for the learning outcomes of individual students, but for society.
“[ It ] undermines institutional reputations, educational standards and credibility, professional practice, and ultimately public safety,” she said.
“ I had a call recently from someone working in aviation who’ s very concerned about contract cheating in that discipline. And they were practically crying.” ■
10