Students cheat more often from those known to them: situation matters more than the individual

Abstract

Research on contract cheating usually considers most forms of outsourcing combined, although studies have found that students more commonly obtain work from those known to them, rather than from commercial sites; yet little research exists which explores which variables and motivators may be associated with this type of outsourcing. Strategies employed to reduce student interaction with essay mills are unlikely to have an impact on reducing outsourcing from friends or family. Implementation of practical responses requires knowledge unique to the different methods of outsourcing. This paper presents statistical analysis undertaken on an international research population to consider which variables were statistically able to predict university student’s engagement in assignment outsourcing from either friends, family or other students. Situational factors, such as knowledge of other student’s cheating, and believing cheating is acceptable, were found to have a correlation to self-reported outsourcing behaviours. Individual factors did not show statistical significance in predicting student engagement with outsourcing from those known to them.

Keywords:

• Assignment outsourcing
• students
• friends
• family
• contract cheating

Acknowledgements

This paper is dedicated to Professor Tracey Bretag and her work on academic integrity. May her work and legacy in this area inspire continued research into reducing misconduct and improving integrity standards in higher education. The authors would like to thank Tomas Foltynek (Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic), Sonja Bjelobaba (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), and Phill Dawson (Deakin University, Australia), for their feedback on previous drafts of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rebecca Awdry

Rebecca Awdry is a doctoral student at CRADLE, Deakin University. Her research focusses on student engagement in assignment outsourcing, globally. This includes prevalence rates, motivations and factors associated with outsourcing, different methods of outsourcing, and strategies to reduce this.

Bob Ives

Bob Ives is an Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. His research interests include academic integrity in higher education, race and ethnicity in education, and special education. He also teaches classes in special education and research methods.