In 2014, a Fairfax Media investigation revealed that more than 1,000 students from 16 universities across Australia had used online marketplace MyMaster to ghost-write their assignments. The public outrage was immediate and the scandal prompted academic research that exposed just how widespread ‘contract cheating’ was across Australia’s higher education sector.
A group of academics, researchers and industry experts banded together to find solutions to help identify and respond to contract cheating in ways that would continue to foreground student learning, while upholding academic standards. Led by academic-integrity technology company Turnitin, the partnership resulted in the launch of a world-first software program called Authorship Investigate, a tool to empower educators to detect and prove cases of contract cheating.
Collaboration was central to the program’s success. Academic institutions were involved in the beta program and early-stage design and development of the tool, as well as integration of various ideas and concepts along the way. The collaboration with developers helped turn feedback for targeted investigations into something that could be more readily automated in the tool. This ultimately allowed for faster investigation of evidence that could immediately determine whether a case could proceed.
Turnitin then created the Early Adopter Program (EAP), bringing together like-minded, experienced investigators from eight Australian academic institutions. This allowed for Authorship Investigate to be tested in the real world. Beyond testing the product, investigators also shared knowledge, procedures and experiences to help broaden their understanding of contract cheating, and allowed for a more reflective review of academic integrity practices at their institutions.
The EAP and use of Authorship Investigate has significantly sped up the investigation process, particularly for more complex cases that cross over Schools and Faculties. For Deakin, the use of the tool resulted in the identification of approximately 40 cases that had sufficient evidence to proceed.