Hi Beth- I think that Chris's idea is a good one, but it is time consuming and I think that students would quickly learn that they should read the paper before submitting it. An alternative that I used was to use Excel to prepare an ordered list comparing student grades before the paper with the grade on the paper itself. This process took only a minute as I kept all of my grades in a spreadsheet. A quick glance down the columns allowed me to find the students who had been producing low level work but who had produced a high level paper. I then invited those students in for a talk. This method isn't perfect (none is) but it enabled me to catch a number of students who thought that they could buy their way to a better grade
Hope that helps, -Don. ----- Original Message ----- From: Beth Benoit <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, June 19, 2010 4:00 pm Subject: Re: [tips] Contract cheating To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > What a terrific idea, Chris. I've been struggling with the > "how can I spot > it" problems, settling on only two things: 1) If the > quality of the > writing in the paper is significantly better than earlier > writings, as seen > in essay questions, etc., that's a red flag. 2) > getting into the sites > themselves, as Bob Clarke did, and getting the information about > requests. > Obviously, these solutions are fraught with problems. > > So I applaud Chris' suggestion. The only problem I can see > is for online > classes, where a student would be able to sit down and maybe, > for the first > time, actually read the paper he/she submitted and thus answer the > questions. > > Page 2? The panel is searching for any appropriate suggestions. > > Beth Benoit > Granite State College > Plymouth State University > New Hampshire > > On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 10:22 AM, Christopher D. Green > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > > > > I have a thought for those of you facing the problem of > student buying > > essays. > > > > Typically students who buy essays don't even read them, > certainly don't > > study them, and probably wouldn't fully understand them (which > is why they > > are buying them instead of writing them). When faced with a > single student > > suspected of cheating in this way, a typical strategy is to > get them to (try > > to) answer a couple of questions about the content of the > essay itself. > > > > Since the problem here is that you don't even know who to > suspect, what if > > you generalized that process to the whole class? You may not > be able to meet > > privately with every student, but what if, while marking, you > simply jotted > > down a couple of questions for each essay that only the writer > of the essay > > would be likely to know the answers to. Then, hold a "pop" > quiz in class in > > which each student gets a "customized" (very small) set of > questions.> Everyone who gets both questions correct gets their > marked essay back. > > Everyone who misses one or both questions gets a private > meeting with the > > teacher before getting his/her essay back. > > > > Regards, > > Chris > > -- > > > > Christopher D. Green > > Department of Psychology > > York University > > Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 > > Canada > > > > > > > > 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 > > [email protected] > > http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ > > > > ========================== > > > > > > [email protected] wrote: > > > > > > > > Indeed, contract plagiarism is extremely difficult to > detect. One tool > > that could be helpful with these cases is using The Cloze test > (take the > > paper, white out key terms, and give it to the student to fill > in the > > blanks). However, you would have to have been suspicious to > begin that the > > papers were not legitimate. Moreover, there is no agreement as to > > what scores would indicate plagiarism. I have used it a couple > of times and > > in one of those instances I got voluntary confession because > the student > > could not fill in a single blank space correctly. > > > > > > > > Miguel > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Beth Benoit" <[email protected]> > <[email protected]>> To: "Teaching in the Psychological > Sciences (TIPS)" > > <[email protected]> <[email protected]> > > Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 12:04:31 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada > Eastern> Subject: Re: [tips] Contract cheating > > > > > > Robert Clarke sent me information he found and the results > were quite > > startling. I think he's "on" these sites, looking for > this kind of thing. > > Absolutely without question, as the student entered the > title of the paper > > she needed as well as the feedback I'd given *only to her* > about how to > > proceed with her paper. > > > > That's the biggest problem...it seems that the only way > we might be able > > to catch these students is to be moles in their systems.... > > > > Beth Benoit > > > > On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 11:58 AM, Paul Bernhardt < > > [email protected]> wrote: > >> > >> > >> How did you discover the paper was from a contract site? > >> > >> Thanks! > >> > >> Paul Bernhardt > >> Dept of Psychology > >> Frostburg State University > >> pcbernhardt _at_ frostburg _dot_ edu > >> > >> > >> > >> On Jun 17, 2010, at 11:22 AM, Beth Benoit wrote: > >> > >> > >> > >> I've recently been involved in a case of "contract cheating," > where a > >> student bought her research paper for my class from a term > paper-writing > >> site and was discovered. (She actually contracted for > three different > >> papers from three different courses - that we know of.) > I think it's * > >> much* more common than we'd like to believe. > >> > >> This has gotten me very interested in the issue of > contract cheating and > >> how it can be detected. (Short answer: Not > easily.) For obvious reasons, > >> the plagiarizing sites won't work for this. They > compare a student's work > >> to other published works, and since these paper-writing sites > typically sell > >> made-to-order papers, there's a different kind of deception > involved,>> because the student *is* handing in an original > paper. It just wasn't > >> written by him/her. Of course, sometimes the purchased > paper is plagiarized > >> from an original work, but that's probably from the cheaper > companies, not > >> from the more upstanding (tongue-in-cheek) organizations like > >> http://www.non-plagiarized-termpapers.com/! > >> > >> One of the experts on this is Robert Clarke, from > Birmingham City > >> University, England. He's actually the one who alerted > me to my student's > >> deception. (Here's information about contract > cheating and Clarke and his > >> colleague, Thomas Lancaster are described: > >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_cheating. ) > >> > >> Here's a summary of their findings: > >> > >> > http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/assessment/plagiarism/cheat_plagiarism.html>> > >> And here are slides presented at a workshop: > >> > >> > http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/events/presentations/682_Private%20Life%20Annotated.pdf>> > >> I think we all need to be aware that this is fast > becoming a huge > >> problem. If a student graduates from one of our > institutions but clearly > >> doesn't "know his/her stuff," it reflects poorly on the > institution.>> > >> And it makes me furious. Especially when I see > the individualized > >> feedback - which I gave to a student on her proposal - posted > on the > >> paper-writing site to give extra help to the person who's > going to write her > >> paper for her. > >> > >> Beth Benoit > >> Granite State College > >> Plymouth State University > >> New Hampshire > >> > >> --- > >> > >> You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > >> > >> To unsubscribe click here: > >> > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=3149>> > >> (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the > line is broken) > >> > >> or send a blank email to > >> leave-3149- > [email protected]>> > >> > >> > >> --- > >> > >> You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > >> > >> To unsubscribe click here: > >> > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13105.b9b37cdd198e940b73969ea6ba7aaf72&n=T&l=tips&o=3152>> > >> (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the > line is broken) > >> > >> or send a blank email to > >> leave-3152- > [email protected]>> > > > > --- > > > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > > > > To unsubscribe click here: > > > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13482.917fac06d4daae681dabfe964ca8c74e&n=T&l=tips&o=3154> > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the > line is broken) > > > > or send a blank email to > > leave-3154- > [email protected]> > > --- > > > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > > > > To unsubscribe click here: > > > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd0da&n=T&l=tips&o=3155> > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the > line is broken) > > > > or send a blank email to > > leave-3155- > [email protected]> > > > > > > --- > > > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > > > > To unsubscribe click here: > > > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13105.b9b37cdd198e940b73969ea6ba7aaf72&n=T&l=tips&o=3162> > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the > line is broken) > > > > or send a blank email to > > leave-3162- > [email protected]> > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13157.966b795bc7f3ccb35e3da08aebe98f18&n=T&l=tips&o=3166or > send a blank email to > leave-3166-13157.966b795bc7f3ccb35e3da08aebe98...@fsulist.frostburg.edu Don Allen Retired professor Langara College --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. 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