Academic Integrity for Students

In Assiniboine's Policy A25, contract cheating is defined as:

• “a deliberate act of academic misconduct in which students outsource their work to third parties (Lancaster & Clarke, 2016). These third parties can be commercial contract cheating sources such as paper mills and websites, or non-commercial sources such as classmates, friends, or family members of students. ” (Assiniboine Community College, 2023).

Contract cheating, essay mills, and auction platforms are collectively called the Industry (Hersey, 2019) in academic integrity research. Newton (2018) specifies the act of payment as the factor which makes contract cheating “deliberate, pre-planned and intentional” (p.2).

Outsourcing work, however, does not always involve formal contracts or the exchange of money (Bretag et al., 2019). At Assiniboine, cheating has involved students asking or allowing the following people to write their assignments:

• classmates
• parents
• siblings
• former students
• tutors
• students in similar programs at other educational institutions

This has been done in exchange for favours or stopping bullying. 

Sometimes these incidents of academic misconduct come from confusion or lack of awareness. At other times, students have actively sought to outsource their work to third parties.

Canada is currently tied for second place among “countries where students engage in contract cheating” (Toye et al., 2019). Assiniboine is no exception.

An initiative to first track then block access to websites offering contract cheating and plagiarism websites showed that Assiniboine students:

• accessed and uploaded assignments and tests to websites which market themselves to students as “study guides” and “homework help”
• accessed sites marketed as “paraphrasing tools” which facilitate both plagiarism and contract cheating.

Students using these sites risk:

• not learning the skills and gaining the knowledge their programs require
• violating copyright law by uploading Assiniboine materials
• being blackmailed by the contract cheating service provider that they pay to complete their assignments for them (see Yorke et al., 2020)

Contract cheating sites are businesses whose concern is profit, despite marketing themselves to students as “study guides” and “homework help”. They're not concerned about students:

• learning with integrity
• having representative credentials
• adhering to school policies.

The Learning Commons works to bring awareness about contract cheating to the Assiniboine learning community throughout Manitoba in various ways, including:

• in-class or online workshops for students
• professional development opportunities for staff and faculty

Contact the Assiniboine Library for more information.

The differences between contract cheating and plagiarism may seem confusing and are the source of debate within the academic integrity community.

In some ways, contract cheating could also be viewed as plagiarism in Policy A25:

• "Using another's words, ideas, theories or images without crediting the source" (Assiniboine Community College, 2013). 

This would, after all, apply to situations where students are handing in something completed by another person.

Examples

Plagiarism

• Students have been accused of plagiarism because they have either missed a citation or a reference.
• A student who does correctly cite and reference the majority of their sources, but forgets one, could be accused of plagiarism.

In both of these cases, the student has interacted with their sources and worked on their assessment.

Contract Cheating

• A student simply has another person complete the assessment for them.

In this case, there is no learning at all, hence contract cheating being a more serious form of academic misconduct.

Intent

We can see the differences in intent by looking at the two situations below:

• A student actively seeks to have their assessment completed by someone else.

versus

• A student has plagiarized - either accidentally or intentionally - in an assessment they've completed themselves.

In the first situation, the student intentionally had someone else complete their work. However, in the second situation, the student plagiarsed, but completed their own work.

As Newton (2018) describes, contract cheating is “deliberate, pre-planned and intentional”, regardless of whether a formal contract or payment is involved.

As outlined in Policy A25, examples of contract cheating include, but are not limited to:

• "Accessing or purchasing an assignment from a commercial source and submitting it as one’s own for marks
• Having another person complete an assignment and submitting it as one’s own for marks
• Outsourcing test or exam questions" (Assiniboine Community College, 2023).

A Google search for something like “write my essay” will return thousands of results from contract cheating providers. They market themselves to students as legitimate resources, but are not.  Sometimes they'll want only a payment, and at other times they'll want students to upload resources in order to access others.

Below is a small selection of examples of this illicit industry.

Example 1

Figure 1. Contract cheating advertisement. (Kaktins, 2018).

Example 2

Figure 2. Contract cheating advertisement. (Kaktins, 2018).

Example 3

Figure 3. Twitter exchange. (Hendricks, 2019).

Example 4

Figure 4. Website screenshot. (Eaton et al., 2019).

Example 5

Figure 5. Contract cheating advertisement. (Kaktins, 2018).

Many of the same strategies to help reduce plagiarism also work to reduce contract cheating, including:

• discuss contract cheating and academic integrity with your instructor
• keep careful research notes
• cite all sources – regardless of their format – that are not your own
• do not share tests, exams, or assignments with others
• do not upload or distribute tests, exams, or assignments to websites unless directed by your instructor
• seek help from the Learning Curve with topics such as time management, study skills, stress management, and more
• maintain regular class attendance
• if in doubt about the nature of a website, talk with your instructor or one of the support areas mentioned

References

Assiniboine Community College. (2023). Policy A25. https://assiniboine.net/sites/default/files/documents/2019-08/a25.pdf

Bretag, T., Harper, R., Burton, M., Ellis, C., Newton, P., van Haeringen, K., Saddiqui, S., & Rozenberg, P. (2019). Contract cheating and assessment design: exploring the relationship. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(5), 676-691.

Eaton, S. E., Chibry, N., Toye, M. A., Rossi, S. (2019). Interinstitutional perspectives on contract cheating: a qualitative narrative exploration from Canada. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 15(9). 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-019-0046-0

Hersey, C. (2019). The struggle is real! #Ineedapaperfast. Presented at the Canadian Symposium on Academic Integrity, Calgary, AB.

Hendricks, M. (2019). Picture of Twitter exchange. https://threader.app/thread/1113430487924711425

Kaktins, L. (2018). Contract cheating advertisements: What they tell us about international students’ attitudes to academic integrity. Ethics & Education, 13(2), 268-284.

Newton, P. (2018). How common is commercial contract cheating in higher education and is it increasing? A systematic review. Frontiers in Education, 3(67), https:/doi.org//10.3389/feduc.2018.00067 

Yorke, J., Sefcik, L., & Veeran-Colton, T. (2020). Contract cheating and blackmail: A risky business? Studies in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1730313