When I was putting this contract cheating research seminar together, I was reminded just what a volume of slides, talks and interesting anecdotes we had. Far more than can fit in every one hour session (with questions), which invariably means leaving some very interesting material out.
This time, we focused particularly on the issues that look like to cause problems to universities that teach primarily by distance learning, such as the UK’s Open University.
The slides, , are included here.
There was an interesting discussion after the research seminar about the ways in which measures taken to prevent contract cheating can also cause issues for people with dyslexia. For instance, one attendee overviewed the very real situation from his own PhD studies where his university he was attending had not allowed the use of external proof readers, for fear of the potential for contract cheating. Invariably, this caused issues with the completion of his PhD.
This is certainly an area of contract cheating worthy of further discussion and opens up a whole cans of worms related to policies which really need to be explored.