Dear list,
On the topic of bespoke cheating services, i'd like to make
a few observations:
I can understand that these people can provide (say) a poorly set
level one essay, but can they provide more imaginatively set
courseworks? What would Elizabeth Hall do if faced with a request for
some level 3 Artificial Intelligence coursework requiring the
production of hand recognition software given a 40x40 webcam image?
Can these companies _really_ write essays on _anything_?
Wittgenstein? The chemical makeup of chocolate? Cancer mortality
rates in Bhutan? I don't think it's plausible that Elizabeth Hall or
any other of these services can cover every subject: the company would
have to have employees or contractors in every subject available. I
know that if someone offered _me_ money to do a piece of level 3
formal methods coursework from, say, Edinburgh, I would find it near
impossible.
I also don't think our students are so amoral that they will pay for
coursework. Call me naive, if you wish, but I think the students I
deal with are generally good people trying to learn about a subject.
Sometimes the hoop-jumping aspect of a degree gets too much for them
and they would rather be in the boozer, and it's at these times that
they're tempted to cheat. But they're tempted to cheat and get hold of
a mate's essay or copy and paste from the web. And they see the idea
of paying for a coursework as being much much worse than
copy-and-pasting, in terms of the scale of the offense.
In short - I like our students. I simply don't believe that they are
getting out their switch cards every time they're faced with a
difficult piece of coursework.
As others have pointed out, there are ways of designing coursework and
assessment that make the use of these services much less likely: I am
sure that there are some subjects where setting practical work is
simply not plausible, but I know that I as an undergraduate had to
perform numerous presentations, practical work and other forms of
seminar based assessment. These forms of assessment greatly reduce
the opportunities for plagiarism. However, I believe that we should be
promoting the use of these forms of assessment for sound pedagogical
reasons - they are more interesting, they foster a wider range of
skills in the student, they can lead to better learning and engagement
with the material - than as a knee-jerk reaction to bespoke cheating
companies.
h
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