Towards deterring contract cheating: Stimulating students’ motivation through authentic assessment design

CONTEXT: Students in higher education have diverse motivation levels which are underpinned by various factors. In particular, it is observed that many postgraduate international students, do not have the willingness to engage genuinely in their studies, due to other pressing priorities such as work and settlement in a new country. Unmotivated students are more vulnerable to engaging in academic misconduct activities, namely, contract cheating. Peer assessment has long been identified as a useful pedagogy to enhance student engagement, learning experience and attainment of learning outcomes (Gielen, Dochy and Onghena, 2011). Peer assessment can be a means through which students can be motivated to engage with one another’s academic work and learning (McGarrigle 2013). Well devised Self and Peer Assessment (SPA), in particular, can assist students in better understanding the assessment task and making them less inclined to outsource the work to third parties, thus negating contract cheating. PURPOSE: This paper aims to demonstrate a proposed framework for integrating SPA in the assessment design of a postgraduate unit (Research n Project Management – PPMP20015) offered within the Master of Project Management Course at CQUniversity with the aim of stimulating unmotivated students and therefore diminish perceived vulnerability to engage in contract cheating. APPROACH: An extensive literature review was carried out to examine the best practices in assessment design with the aim of informing the re-development process of the assessment design of Research in Project Management Unit in Term 1, 2018. The diverse motivation and achievement levels of students were considered in integrating the SPA within an authentic and resilient assessment design to diminish vulnerability to contract cheating. RESULTS: Different forms of SPA were integrated in the assessment design, aided by technology, to produce a more authentic and engaging assessment design. It was held that students who are more engaged in their learning and assessment would be less prone to engaging in contract cheating. The introduced assessment design includes two assignments which are both submitted in two stages (e.g. draft and final). Formative (non-graded) SPA was introduced for the draft submissions of assignment 1 while summative SPA was used for the draft submissions of assignment 2. Results showed that implementing summative SPA within sequential assessment may relatively be more effective in diminishing contract cheating cases. A higher level of student engagement, motivation and peer interaction was observed. The majority of students, responded to the unit evaluation survey, highly regarded the introduction of SPA as a great deterrent of cheating and an effective tool for an enjoyable learning experience. The adopted approach enhanced not only students’ confidence in attaining the unit learning outcomes but also, their active engagement and entertainment during the learning journey. It also diminished vulnerability to “contract cheating” and procrastination by way of imposing two deadlines for the same work. CONCLUSION: Embedding summative self and peer assessment within sequential assessment tasks can attract a higher level of student engagement, motivation and peer interaction. This assessment design will increase students’ confidence in attaining the unit learning outcomes. It will also help diminish vulnerability to “contract cheating” and procrastination by way of imposing two deadlines for the same work. However, it must be noted that the study was limited in that it presented a novel conceptual framework of an effective assessment design. Further research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of such a framework in motivating students and diminishing vulnerability to engage in contract cheating. In addition, it may be worthwhile to adopt the proposed approach in other contexts and measuring its effectiveness, thus testing the developed model.