Just cheat

When commencing studies you’re required to undertake academic integrity awareness training to not only ensure you are aware of what this is, but to also provide the institution with sign off you agree to abide by these principles.

I recall when I first began working at a university in the late 1990s one academic started using a new online service, TurnItIn, which took student assessments and reviewed these against a bank of other submissions and provided an originality rating. At the time I was quite surprised to think it was needed, how naïve I was to think cheating was rare.

In recent years I returned to study myself, and undertaking the integrity modules I heard of contract cheating for the first time, it shocked me such services existed, and that students used them. Such sites provide previously completed assessments or services to complete assessments.

At work this week we were told of one extreme example, a postgraduate student having completed their entire qualification through the use of such a service and was awarded a university research medal, it was only at the graduation ceremony when being awarded this medal the real person attended that they were caught out. They apparently felt there was nothing wrong with what they’d done; shocking!

Whilst surfing LinkedIn this morning I notice several posts citing the Australian Universities Quality Agency has moved to block 40 contract cheating websites so those who might cheat will have a more difficult time trying to do so. If you can’t get through a program on your own merits then you should either swap to a more suitable program or understand it’s not for you.