Minimising online contract cheating

Combating Contract Cheating is important to ensure the integrity of assessment in higher education. As online learning in higher education becomes more widespread, so is the incidence of Contract Cheating. Online brokerage services are facilitating significant increases in the incidence of Contract Cheating. The Flexible Learning and Innovation Projects (FLIP) team is exploring ways of mitigating Contract Cheating for the fully online Master of Business Administration (Leadership). From the outset, FLIP educational designers and developers recognise that fully online courses need to address issues of Contract Cheating to promote course integrity. Existing procedures and technology products were sought to tackle the current wave of Contract Cheating. It quickly became apparent that an existing solution was not available to meet all CQUniversity and TEQSA requirements for dealing with this intractable problem. A range of options were identified, each with unique advantages and disadvantages. Some of the products identified are still under development and will require further investment to establish their suitability for the context of this MBA. Eleven products were initially identified as suitable contenders, of which four were deemed unsuitable leaving six warranting further investigation. There are two fronts on which to thwart the prevention and detection of Contract Cheating. These fronts can be partitioned into four components: prevention, including (1) procedures to promote academic-integrity/good-behaviour, and (2) good pedagogical practices to address Contract Cheating, while detection includes (3) procedures to address academic breaches, and (4) mitigating risks to academic integrity to address inappropriate behaviour.