ONLINE CONTRACT CHEATING

ONLINE CONTRACT CHEATING: ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

There is a tendency by students to hire the assistance of another person to help them in completing their academic tasks and submit it as if it is their own work which they have personally completed. This is called contract cheating. Contract cheating is one of the offences university communities take very seriously. It attacks the core business of the university which is academic integrity and development. Contract cheating has not reached the level of plagiarism and its publicity. The internet has made academic cheating an easier exercise for students. This kind of work has been specifically written for the student who hired another person to write for him or herself. It necessarily means that the work cannot be traced to another source on the internet. Human contract cheating detection instruments may not be useful in detecting the source of the contracted assignment.

          There are online websites which facilitate contract cheating for a fee. There is website called RentACoder.com which facilitates tendering process on the internet. It does the general tendering process for contract cheating services for students. Most students use this website to facilitate contract cheating. Most students studying computer technology have used this website than any other discipline of study. Some studies have found that this kind of contract cheating does not provide best assignments for better marks. Most researchers have also attempted to facilitate contract cheating for their research purposes. The result was that is easy to get a special assignment written by ghostwriters.

1. CONTRACT CHEATING WEBSITES

Auction sites: These sites do not exist solely for contract cheating; they are business sites which assist in outsourcing business deals or transactions. It also           facilitates contract cheating. Examples of these sites are RentACoder.com and GetACoder.com.

Group discussion sites: Students may discuss any academic topic of their own choice on these sites. CodeingForums.com and Web Coding and development forums are used for contract cheating. Dishonest students may use these sites to ask questions which may assist them in preparing an assignment and or academic project that was supposed to be an individual effort.

Essay mills: These websites are available for students who require assistance with their academic work. These sites include Customs Essays Writing Service-Proof           Essays, and. Dishonest students use these sites to put an order for a special assignment on a specific topic. They do not provide already authored essays; it is new projects.

Feed aggregators: These websites request assistance from contract cheating sites which will then author essays for students. They conduct a bidding process for contract cheaters for a specific task at hand. It must be noted that websites have existed before the internet, but the internet made it easier and quicker to get a contract assignment. Completed. Students can also request private bidding which will make it difficult to police or investigate the academic dishonesty. It does not leave traces for investigators to follow make follow ups or trace the origins of contracted academic work.

Online discussion websites are used for free by students; it is free information that is received by students. Students can still contract one member of the discussion forum to help him or her with the writing of an assignment for a specified amount of money. It will also be difficult to search for the sources of these kind of assignments through plagiarism detection technology. It is related to the offline method where a student looks for a physical person to assist with homework or assignment.

These online contract cheating websites on the internet are readily available for cheating students. Monitoring is still possible even though it will be minimal. Students using these websites can be stopped if they are found and be subjected to student disciplinary procedures. This may serve as a deterrent, and it will stop others for following the same route. It is important for academics to know these sites to check their students’ activities. Google search can help trace assignments which were on auction, and it can help in tracing these activities. Universities must design ways of investigating contract cheating (Lancaster & Clarke 2008:145-155).

Artificial Intelligence (AI): The students who have better knowledge of AI are likely to cheat during their academic assessments using AI. It is also influenced by their thinking about AI and internalise their thinking and gives them their internal confidence, thus increases the chances of academic dishonesty (Sari, Ruzita, Arum, Kurniasari & Nadafajar 2024:6-7).

Analysis by the author: AI has brought a lot of unethical challenges relating to the abuse of IT revolution by university students to commit academic dishonesty in their academic assessment work. Students’ nay search for the answers in their academic assignments or projects. They cheat using AI and write academic projects as if it is their original academic work. It is a freely available contractor which students can contract and get the free academic cheating services at universities. The service can also be at a specific price.

• WHAT MAKE STUDENTS ENGAGE IN ACADEMIC CONTRACT CHEATING
  • If students feel or knows cheating is a campus culture.
  • There is no consequence when someone cheats.
  • Students feel the subject, or a section in the subject is boring or less           interesting.
  • Students will low self-esteem (TEQSA 2022:1-14).

• CONCLUSION

Ther is a need for universities to produce clear student discipline policy guidelines which encompasses proactive and retroactive measures od managing contract cheating. The policy guidelines must be clear on what is an offence of contract cheating and the consequences of such unethical academic dishonesty. The policy must also indicate clearly what are the offences of contract cheating and it does not end on traditional assessments of assignments and research project. It also covers designs, drawings, material entities, music production, any related non-written academic work, or projects. The policy guidelines must provide guided online links where academics, faculty members and students can self-taught themselves more about the unethical behaviour of contract cheating. Academics must try to change assessment methods which may encourage students to cheat. Academics, faculty members and students must be involved in awareness campaigns against contract cheating. The negative consequences of contract cheating must be made known to all students.

• REFERENCES

Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. 2008. The Phenomena of Contract Cheating.        In Roberts, T. 2008. Students Plagiarism in an Online World: Problems     and Solutions. Hershey PA: Idea Group Reference.

Sari. A, Ruzita. J, Arum. P, Setyo. T.W, Kurniasari, NH and Nadafajar N.W.      2024. Plagiarism among accounting and Business Postgraduate       Students: A Fraud   Diamond Framework Moderated by Understanding   of Artificial Intelligence. A   Cogent Education Journal. VOL.11(1).       https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2024.2375077

• Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. 2022. What is Contract Cheating       and Methods to Reduce It. Australian Government.      https://www.teqsa.gov.au/preventing-contract-cheating/what-contract- cheating-and-methods-reduce-it.

Dr SEFOKO RAMOSHABA

HOD: STUDENT LIFE AND DEVELOPMENT

NELSON MANDELA UNIVERSITY

SEFOKOR@MANDELA.AC.ZA