Academic cheating skyrockets during pandemic: UCalgary researcher

Article content

Governments must take action to protect students amid a surge in academic cheating during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Calgary researcher says.

In Canada and elsewhere in the world, more students are resorting to plagiarism or contract cheating like essay mills to make it through their classes, said Sarah Elaine Eaton, an associate professor at the University of Calgary. She said schools in Canada are reporting anywhere from a 38 per cent to a more than 200 per cent increase in academic misconduct during the pandemic.

The spike corresponds to an increase in stress and difficulties for both students and instructors adjusting to virtual learning.

“Just as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the cracks in our society broadly, it’s also shown the cracks in education, and one of those is around academic misconduct,” Eaton said.

“These students were just trying to cope. … I think this was something that educational institutions were not prepared for.”

Article content

Some post-secondary students are facing academic misconduct investigations for improperly sharing assignment information with one another in online environments — activity that took place in classrooms and study halls before the pandemic.

But other, more sinister forms of cheating have also taken hold, Eaton explained. The existing industry of contract cheating — companies that write essays or complete assignments for students — is becoming more predatory, advertising to students on social media platforms like TikTok whose users are dominated by a younger demographic.

She said students who use the services often become victims of extortion, where companies will continue charging their credit card, threatening to report them to their school if they attempt to seek help.

“(These companies) are out there and they’re framing their outreach to students as help and support,” Eaton said. “We know that students are being blackmailed. This is a dark side that we haven’t really talked about.”

Last month, the Better Business Bureau issued a scam alert for contract cheating, saying they have received reports from college and high school students met with a similar extortion con.

Little data on contract cheating exists in Canada, but global, self-reported data suggests about 3.5 per cent of students use the services. That would represent about 75,000 Canadian students before the pandemic, Eaton said, but it’s unknown how much the practice has spread in the past year.

Article content

Eaton called on Canadian universities and colleges to name contract cheating in their academic misconduct policies, helping them to be more proactive in combating the problem.

Governments can also work to pass legislation making contract cheating legal, as some U.S. states and countries like Australia have done.

“But in Canada, we have silence. We do not have any dialogue happening with quality assurance bodies or politicians that could possibly make this illegal in Canada,” Eaton said.

“This happens in Canada. This is not a problem that happens somewhere else. This is a problem that happens everywhere.”

Eaton is speaking about academic cheating at the 2021 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences Tuesday. Members of the public are welcome to attend; there is a $25 fee to attend open sessions.

jherring@postmedia.com

Twitter: @jasonfherring