Contract cheating by STEM students through a file sharing website: a Covid-19 pandemic perspective

Abstract

Students are using file sharing sites to breach academic integrity in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper analyses the use of one such site, Chegg, which offers “homework help” and other academic services to students. Chegg is often presented as a file sharing site in the academic literature, but that is just one of many ways in which it can be used. As this paper demonstrates, Chegg can and is used for contract cheating This is despite the apparent existence of an Honour Code on Chegg which asks students not to breach academic integrity. With pandemic led safety considerations leading to increased online teaching and assessment, the paper analyses data relating to how Chegg is used by students in five STEM subjects, namely Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics and Chemistry. The results show that students are using Chegg to request exam style questions. They demonstrate that contract cheating requests can be put live and answered within the short duration of an examination. The number of student requests posted for these five subjects increased by 196.25% comparing the time period April 2019 to August 2019 with the period April 2020 to August 2020. This increase corresponds with the time when many courses moved to be delivered and assessed online. The growing number of requests indicates that students are using Chegg for assessment and exam help frequently and in a way that is not considered permissible by universities. The paper concludes by recommending that academic institutions put interventions in place to minimise the risk to educational standards posed by sites such as Chegg, particularly since increased online teaching and assessment may continue after the pandemic.

Violations of and threats to academic integrity in online English language teaching

“…The choice of teaching methods and modalities also seem to influence if students choose to violate academic integrity or not. Following the outbreak of COVID-19, an increase in academic integrity violations was observed (Lancaster & Cotarlan, 2021). This increase appears to relate closely to the widespread international movement to emergency remote teaching.…”

Deterring cheating using a complex assessment design: A case study

“…Because classroom testing was not possible, and invigilated assessments were not an option, safeguarding academic integrity became a challenge (Gamage et al, 2020;Reedy et al, 2021). In addition, many so-called "study aid" tutoring sites such as Chegg and Course Hero have emerged during the pandemic to help students with their take-home exams (Lancaster & Cotarlan, 2021).…”

Pedagogy in a Pandemic: Teaching without Exams

“…There are two reasons for this: technology and perception. Hardware and software technologies such as search engines, forums, chat channels, web-facilitated contract cheating [2], network-connected telephones, watches, tablets, "smart speakers" and full-fledged computers are omnipresent. They are difficult to block during non-pandemic in-person exams and impossible while students are remote.…”

“…For commuter schools like UBC or York University, providing flexibility for students to learn from an off-campus location is desirable. 2 While many students found the lack of exams a valuable aspect of the courses, an important portion of them would prefer examination-based assessment. Clearly both students and faculty value them and should be considered for reintroduction when we go back to face-to-face teaching, but perhaps in modified form or weight.…”