Definition

Contract cheating is a phenomena which was observed in 2006 by Thomas Lancaster and Robert Clarke at the University of Central England, Birmingham in which students get others to complete their coursework for them by putting it out to tender. ^{[1] [2] [3]} The University of Central England in Birmingham (UCE) is located in Birmingham, England. ... The city from above Centenary Square. ... Alternate uses: Student (disambiguation) Etymologically derived through Middle English from the Latin second-type conjugation verb stŭdērĕ, which means to study, a student is one who studies. ... Coursework refers to work carried out by students while they are studying a course at university or school that contributes towards their overall grade, but which is assessed separately from their final exams. ... Tender may mean: one of several types of boat or ship, all sharing the general function of servicing another type of air or sea vessel: seaplane tender - supplies and services seaplanes submarine tender - resupplies submarines motor torpedo boat tender - resupplies motor torpedo boats ships tender - used to transport people...

Although there had already been websites which would supply ready-made essays Contract cheating took the process a step further in that the students used legitimate websites normally used by businesses offering freelance project work. A website, Web site or WWW site (often shortened to just site) is a collection of webpages, that is, HTML/XHTML documents accessible via HTTP on the Internet; all publicly accessible websites in existence comprise the World Wide Web. ... Essay, a short work that treats of a topic from an authors personal point of view, often taking into account subjective experiences and personal reflections upon them. ...

Extent of contract cheating

The only published material detailing the extent of contract cheating is a study by Robert Clarke and Thomas Lancaster.^[4] The study presents three main findings.

1 - That 12.3% of postings on a popular site for outsourcing computer contract work are actually bid requests from students looking to attempt contract cheating.

2 - That contract cheaters have, on average, posted between 2 and 7 bid requests. This suggests that habitual use is made of such services by these students.

3 - A smaller number of users have posted over 50 bid requests, including examples from multiple institutions. This suggests that these are agencies subcontracing work, not students who are directly making use of the services.

Alternative forms of wording

Some sources have erroneously referred to contract cheating as contract plagiarism^[5]. Although strictly this type of cheating is a type of plagiarism, as a student is submitting work that they have not created for academic credit, the idea of cheating more accurately reflects this attempt to deceive. As is the way of the Internet, this alternative terminology has since been quoted in other sources and in some cases these terms are used interchangably. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty; it is a matter of deceit: fooling a reader into believing that certain written material is original when it is not. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

References

1. ^ "Student cheats contract out work", BBC/bbc.com, 2006-06-12. Retrieved on 2006-06-14.
2. ^ Liz Lightfoot. "Cheating students put assignments out to tender on the internet", Telegraph/telegraph.co.uk, 2006-06-13. Retrieved on 2006-06-14.
3. ^ "Cheating students put homework to tender on Internet", Daily Mail/dailymail.co.uk, 2006-06-13. Retrieved on 2006-06-14.
4. ^ Robert Clarke & Thomas Lancaster. "Eliminating the successor to plagiarism? Identifying the usage of contract cheating sites.", JISC Plagiarism Advisory Service/jiscpas.ac.uk, 2006-06-19.
5. ^ Donald MacLeod. "Publish and be damned", Guardian/guardian.co.uk, 2006-06-13. Retrieved on 2006-06-15.