contract cheating and the essay writing industry - where does the money go - international center...
TRANSCRIPT
1#contractcheating
Contract Cheating And The Essay Writing Industry
Where Does The Money Go?
Presented by Dr. Thomas Lancasterat ICAI Inaugural Mediterranean Conference, Athens, Greeceon Thursday, 8 September 2016
http://thomaslancaster.co.uk@DrLancaster
2#contractcheating
Exploring Academic Ghostwriting, Essay Mills and Thriving Marketing Campaigns
5#contractcheating
My Background And Credibility
By trade and enthusiasm, a Computer Science educator and student experience advocateBy current employment, mainly an academic manager, focused on marketing and student recruitmentJoined Coventry University in May 2016 as a Principal Lecturer, previously worked at Birmingham City University for many years as a Senior Lecturer and Programme LeaderOther areas of academic interest including student employability, professional online presences, social media promotion, supporting software startup companies, hackathons and entrepreneurshipSenior Fellow of the Higher Education AcademyNot the best at publishing traditional academic research!
BBC South East Today– BBC1
Dispatches – Channel 4
Fake Britain – BBC1
6#contractcheating
http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blog https://www.youtube.com/user/DrThomasLancaster
“Celebrating” 10 years of contract cheating research (2006 to 2016)And 16 years of plagiarism and academic integrity research (2000 to 2016)
7#contractcheating
Your Involvement Is Much Encouraged!
Twitter Please tweet observations, comments, quotes, photos, discussion topics#contractcheating@DrLancaster
Live Please join in the discussion, ask questions and contribute stories
8#contractcheating
Today’s PresentationA work in progress!Not an attempt to repeat the last 10 years of contract cheating researchLooks at available quantitative data associated with the essay writing industryExtent of the industryCosts incurred by students looking to buy original workAdvertising costs, paid/free marketing techniques and referral
commissionsPayment available to writersAlternative methods that individuals use to make money through the
essay industry
9#contractcheating
A Recent UK Development – The Quality Assurance Agency
10#contractcheating
Three Main Recommendations
• “Universities, colleges and sector organisations should work in partnership to tackle custom essay writing services”
• “The possibility of legislative approaches should be investigated”
• “Companies selling advertising space should reject approaches by sites selling custom essays, and search engines should limit access to these sites”
11#contractcheating
Times Higher Education Report“Thomas Lancaster, associate head of the School of Computing, Electronics and Mathematics at Coventry University and an expert on essay mills, said that the QAA report was a ‘very positive move forward’ but added that universities had an important role to play too, through course design.”
Bar essay mills from advertising and search engines, says QAABy Chris HavergalAugust 18, 2016https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bar-essay-mills-advertising-and-search-engines-says-qaa
13#contractcheating
Does money to research contract cheating and to find solutions to this problem?
15#contractcheating
It Was Already Substantial In 2006“Our turnover for 2005 was £1.6m. In one week in early May we took £90,000. One of our customers has spent £17,000 with us. My overheads are pretty low because we work from home and our writers work on commission. So I take about a third of £1.6m.”
Barclay LittlewoodAll Answers
Q: How do you make £1.6m a year and drive a Ferrari? A: Sell essays for £400The Guardian, 29 July 2006https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/jul/29/highereducation.education
16#contractcheating
Recent Figures Have Become Yet More Substantial
Annual revenues above $100 million
Owings, S. and Nelson, J. (2014). The essay industry. Mountain Plains Journal of Business and
Economics, General Research, 15
The EssayWriter boss believes that the industry is worth £100
million a yearDaily Telegraph, 29 May 2016
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/29/essay-writing-industry-booms-as-students-demand-tailor-made-cour
£200 million a year business (quoted
based on UK Essays figures)
Dr. Thomas Lancaster on UK TV Channel 4 Dispatcheshttp://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/dispatches-investigation-reveals-extent-of-student-plagiarism
Writer states that they produced more than 4000 essays between 2000 and
2010http://www.thebestschools.org/resources/ghostwriting-business-trade-standards-practices-secrets
Two writers stated $10,000 a month earning at peak timesThe New Cheating Economy
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 August 2016
1.5% of invoices said to be over £5000
http://www.academicknowledge.com/become-a-writer
18#contractcheating
Assignment Service Marketing Funnel
New Student Lead Collected By Assignment Production Service
Student Buys Original Assignment
Student Submits Original
Assignment
29#contractcheating
International Writers Can Be Salaried
“Workers are employed on salaries of 45,000 rupees (£324) a month to work in two shifts — from 9am to 6pm, and a night shift from 6pm to 3am. Required skills include ‘excellent English writing skills in terms of language’.To mask its Pakistani origins, Nexus set up a British company called Nexuscorp Ltd with an address in a Folkestone business park.”
Thousands of nurses cheat in examsThe Times,19 July 2016http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/thousands-of-nurses-cheat-in-exams-zzz2kzm77
30#contractcheating
Essay Mill Aimed At Chinese Students In The UKStudents in the UK pay essay companies £100 to £300 per thousand wordsThe hired ghostwriters in China are paid £20 per thousand words
Online essay mills targeting Chinese studentshttp://shine-a-light-on.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/online-essay-mills-targeting-chinese.html
31#contractcheating
http://www.thebestschools.org/resources/ghostwriting-business-trade-standards-practices-secrets/
33#contractcheating
Work Available In Major Essay Mills
Uvocorp Writerbay
40#contractcheating
Tracking Information Available About A Well-Known Assignment Production Service
41#contractcheating
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ukessays.com
What Information Is Available About The Market Leader?
43#contractcheating
There Is Demand For “Highly Paid” Writing Accounts
44#contractcheating
Whole online communities exist to help people to become “academic writers”This enables them to work in this field (providing contract cheating services)
45#contractcheating
https://www.damongo.com/Business/92/buy-registered-academic-writing-accounts
46#contractcheating
A Lucrative Business Venture?
“Serious writers could make up to $1,000 per week while others would apply for the account and sale it at a cost of $750 - $2,000 depending on the level of the account.”
http://www.mybusinesstricks.com/2013/08/uvocorp-discriminates-kenyan-writers-in.html
48#contractcheating
http://essaylancers.com/
Connect To Individual Writers
49#contractcheating
https://wordpress.org/plugins/academic-writing-ordering-system
WordPress Plugin
Easily Operate Your Own Essay Mill
52#contractcheating
Referral Options At EssayPartnerChoice of$21 per orderor16%-25% per order
$100 for every new affiliate who refers 10 sales
53#contractcheating
Russian Affiliate Programme(Writing Provided in English)Essay affiliate program: 75% of each new order, 35% of each rebill and 5% Referral commission
r/affiliateprograms
55#contractcheating
New Business Models Are Emerging In The Contract Cheating Field
Services offering multiple sites aimed at difference audiences
Sites taking orders, which are then plugged into an existing
service to complete
Sites taking orders, which are then outsourced (sub-
contractors)
Individual writers, who have their own contacts for when the workload gets heavy or is
outside their specialism
And many more…
56#contractcheating
The Financial Flows Can Get Complex…
1• Affiliate bids for essay traffic on Google AdWords sent to a fake review site• Affiliate pays £3 a click
2• Student clicks through “reviews” to essay mill sites, with 1 in 10 (10%) students making a purchase• Site pays 40% commission for the referral
3• Student orders a 2000 word (8 pages) reflective report• Normal cost of £20 a page, site offers a 50% coupon
4• Writers inside the site “bid” for the privilege of writing the reflective report• Winning bidder proposes £3 a page, total earnings £24
5
• Reflective report is returned to the site, checked for plagiarism, reviewed by an editor• Student receives the report and submits it for academic credit• The student receives 60% and passes the module
57#contractcheating
Everyone Gets Their Cut!
And this is just one of many assignment site models to be considered!
Student -£100Affiliate +£10Writer +£24Google AdWords +£30Essay Site +£36
58#contractcheating
Does an understanding of how essay sites develop and serve their market help the sector to address the £200+ million per year business in contract cheating?
60#contractcheating
References For My Main Contract Cheating Publications
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2015), Contract Cheating – The Outsourcing Of Assessed Student Work, in Handbook of Academic Integrity, Bretag, T. (editor): SpringerReference.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2015),The Implications of Plagiarism and Contract Cheating for the Assessment of Database Modules. 13th International Workshop on Teaching, Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2015), Birmingham, UK, July 2015.
Hersey, C. and Lancaster, T. (2015), The Online Industry of Paper Mills, Contract Cheating Services, and Auction Sites, Clute Institute International Education Conference, London, June 2015.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014), An Observational Analysis Of The Range And Extent Of Contract Cheating From Online Courses Found On Agency Websites; 8th International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS 2014), Birmingham City University, UK, July 2014.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014), An Initial Analysis Of The Contextual Information Available Within Auction Posts On Contract Cheating Agency Websites, 28th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, University of Victoria, May 2014
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014), Using Turnitin As A Tool For Attribution In Cases Of Contract Cheating; 3rd Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, April 2014.
Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2013). Commercial Aspects Of Contract Cheating; 8th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, July 2013.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2012). Dealing With Contract Cheating: A Question Of Attribution; 1st Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Imperial College, London, April 2012.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2010). Staff-Led Individualised Assessment – A Case Study; 11th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Information and Computer Sciences, Durham University, August 2010.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2008). How to Succeed at Cheating Without Really Trying: Five Top Tips for Successful Cheating; 9th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Information and Computer Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, August 2008.
Clarke, R, and Lancaster, T (2007). Establishing a Systematic Six-Stage Process for Detecting Contract Cheating; The Second International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Applications, Birmingham City University, July 2007.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2007). Assessing Contract Cheating Through Auction Sites – A Computing Perspective; 8th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Information and Computer Sciences, University of Southampton, August 2007.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2007) The Phenomena of Contract Cheating, in Student Plagiarism in an Online World: Problems and solutions, Roberts, T. S. (editor), Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA: Idea Group Inc.
Clarke, R and Lancaster, T (2006). Eliminating The Successor To Plagiarism? Identifying The Usage Of Contract Cheating Sites; 2nd Plagiarism: Prevention, Practice and Policy Conference 2006 - Newcastle, UK, June 2006.
61#contractcheating
Upcoming Engagement
Thursday October 13, 2016 Curtin University, Australiahttps://registrar.curtin.edu.au/events.cfm
62#contractcheating
Speaker Bookings and Further InformationDr. Thomas Lancaster Contact Details
Email: [email protected]: http://thomaslancaster.co.ukBlog: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blogLinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/thomaslancaster Twitter: @DrLancaster
This session’s slides are available at:http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster
General Resources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_cheatinghttp://contractcheating.com
Contract Cheating Special Interest Group(originally supported by the Higher Education Academy):https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=CONTRACTCHEATING