課題をインターネットで外部委託！？
イギリスのバーミンガムにあるセントラルイングランド大学が、
大学生が課題を自分で取り組まずに、インターネット上で外部委託する行為が広がってきた、
と発表した。
（CNN.co.jp／2006.06.14）
原文はコチラ↓
（UCE Birmingham／2006.06.12）（抜粋）
CYBER CHEATS BUYING COURSEWORK ONLINEA new generation of cyber cheats is exploiting the Internet to buy coursework solutions on-line before passing the material off as their own.
The phenomenon, dubbed ‘Contract Cheating’ was identified by UCE Birmingham academics Dr Thomas Lancaster and Robert Clarke. Later this month, they will tell the 2 nd International Plagiarism Conference in Newcastle that ‘Contract Cheating is the natural successor to pure plagiarism.’
Contract Cheats submit work that has been written to order for them, after putting coursework assignments out to tender. This is done using legitimate out-sourcing web sites ordinarily used by businesses offering freelance project work to an international audience of skilled professionals.
Dr Lancaster, Lecturer and Mr Clarke, Principal Lecturer, of UCE Business School, looked in particular at RentACoder.com, a software solutions outsourcing site, where they found that one in ten of all bid requests were from students trying to get their coursework completed for them. These bids included computer programming requests as well as other computing assignments and essays for other subjects.
Dr Lancaster said: “What we’ve identified is a new type of cheating where students put their coursework out to tender and suppliers bid to complete the work.
“T his type of cheating is cost effective for students, because many of the suppliers are internationally based and can complete the set assignments for a few dollars a time.”
The research notes that less than ten per cent of contract cheats identified on RentACoder.com had made only a single bid request – the majority had previously requested between two and seven pieces of work.
“We believe this shows that this form of cheating is becoming habitual,” Dr Lancaster said. “As an academic community, we need to take stock of this situation.
“More automated detection techniques are needed to monitor these sites and assessments and academic policies need to be reconsidered to remove the potential for contract cheating to be committed.”
Lancaster and Clarke were able to trace contract cheating bids to universities in America, Canada and Australia as well as within the UK, where they identified bids originating from 46 different Higher Education Institutions.
Dr Lancaster said: “There is a serious concern that, unlike plagiarism, academic institutions are not yet fully aware of the potential prevalence of Contract Cheating and the measures that can be taken to avoid it.”
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