Contract cheating

A survey of Australian university students

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4096604
AutoresTracey Bretag (0000-0001-8433-2675, University of South Australia, autor correspondente), Rowena Harper (0000-0002-5330-525X, University of South Australia), Michael Burton (0000-0003-4213-4093, University of South Australia), Cath Ellis (0000-0003-1921-6226, University of South Australia), Philip Newton (0000-0002-5272-7979, University of South Australia), Paul Rozenberg (0000-0003-2121-8044, University of South Australia), Sonia Saddiqui (0000-0003-2248-5742, University of South Australia), Karen Van Haeringen (0000-0003-2045-8943, University of South Australia)
Ano2019
Volume44
Fascículo11
Páginas1837-1856
Data de publicação2019-11-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoStudies in Higher Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0307-5079 • E-ISSN: 1470-174X
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03075079.2018.1462788
OpenAlexW2802580307
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas108
Referências citadas42

Recent Australian media scandals suggest that university students are increasingly outsourcing their assessments to third parties – a behaviour known as ‘contract cheating’. This paper reports on findings from a large survey of students from eight Australian universities (n = 14,086) which sought to explore students’ experiences with and attitudes towards contract cheating, and the contextual factors that may influence this behaviour. A spectrum of seven outsourcing behaviours were investigated, and three significant variables were found to be associated with contract cheating: dissatisfaction with the teaching and learning environment, a perception that there are ‘lots of opportunities to cheat’, and speaking a Language Other than English (LOTE) at home. To minimise contract cheating, our evidence suggests that universities need to support the development of teaching and learning environments which nurture strong student–teacher relationships, reduce opportunities to cheat through curriculum and assessment design, and address the well-recognised language and learning needs of LOTE students

Cheating · Higher education · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociology · Academic integrity and plagiarism · Ethics in Business and Education · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology