education | Learning, Teaching and Leadership

University of Calgary Research Assistant Job Posting – “Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity: The Ethics of Teaching and Learning with Algorithmic Writing”

November 30, 2022

Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity Werklund School of Education – Graduate Assistant (Research) (GAR)

Job posting Role: Graduate Assistant (Research) (GAR) – Quantitative Research Methods

Project title: “Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity: The Ethics of Teaching and Learning with Algorithmic Writing”

Principal Investigator: Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, Associate Professor

Project and role description: This project explores the primary research question: What are the ethical implications of artificial intelligence technologies for teaching, learning, and assessment?

The Graduate Assistant (Research) GAR will assist with administering an online survey via Qualtrics to collect data about University of Calgary students’ and educators’ understanding regarding algorithmic text-generating software. The GAR will manage the input of the survey instrument into Qualtrics and manage data collection and analysis with a collaborative, interdisciplinary team. The outputs of the GAR’s work will be integrated with literature reviews and qualitative findings conducted by other members of the research team for the purposes of a variety of knowledge dissemination opportunities.

Responsibilities:

Input survey instrument into Qualtrics

Manage and clean survey response data

Provide regular updates to the research team about survey response data

Prepare descriptive and inferential statistics (including running logistic regressions)

Prepare figures and methods/results write-ups for knowledge dissemination (meetings, publications, presentations)

Maintain an organized file system and records for data handover and continuity

Synthesize results with qualitative findings as needed

Attend team meetings, approximately biweekly

Engage in regular reporting and communications to the PI and project team

Other duties as assigned

Skills / experience required:

The key responsibilities for this role require experience with quantitative research methods and statistics. The CV and cover letter should clearly indicate skills and experience in the following areas:

Survey validation
Using Qualtrics for survey design and distribution
Preparing descriptive / inferential statistics
Using quantitative data analysis software (SPSS, STATA, etc.)
Creating figures for descriptive / inferential statistics
Running logistic regressions on quantitative data
Working as part of an interdisciplinary research team

Skills / experience preferred:

Using OpenAI and/or GPT-3 Identifying relevant AI tools

Eligibility and Application instructions:

For this role, you must be a current graduate student (master’s or doctoral level) at the University of Calgary.

Start date: January 9, 2023

End date: December 31, 2023

Location: Blended (primarily remote with availability for occasional work on the University of Calgary main campus)

To apply send a CV and cover letter to: Dr. Sarah Elaine Eaton, Associate Professor, Werklund School of Education seaton (at) ucalgary (dot) ca

Deadline to apply: January 2, 2023

Important notes:

This opportunity is only for students with an active student registration at the University of Calgary. Please do not apply if you are not a current student at University of Calgary. The current student status of short-listed applicants will be verified before an offer of employment can be made.
Hands-on experience with quantitative research methods and statistics is a requirement for this role.

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This blog has had over 3 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks! Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, and the Educational Leader in Residence, Academic Integrity, University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of the University of Calgary.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Forthcoming book: Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education

October 16, 2022

Front cover of the book, Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education, edited by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Jamie Carmichael, and Helen Pethrick. Published 2023 by Springer.

We are pleased to share the news that our edited book, Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education, has been submitted for publication (Eaton, Carmichael, and Pethrick, eds.) to Springer Nature. The book is slated for publication in early 2023.

Book description

This book addresses an important topic in higher education: credential fraud. This includes, but is not limited to, fake degrees, diploma mills, admissions fraud, and cheating on standardized admissions tests. The book directly addresses fake and fraudulent credentials in higher education. It explores transcript tampering and fraud in varsity athletics and discusses lazy practices in the higher education hiring processes that open the door for professors without proper credentials to get jobs in post-secondary institutions.

The book also discusses how technology is being used to stop the proliferation of fake and fraudulent credentials in a variety of ways, including blockchain technology.

Here is a sneak preview of the table of contents:

Chapter 1: Fake Degrees and Credential Fraud, Contract Cheating, and Paper Mills: Overview and Historical Perspectives – Sarah Elaine Eaton & Jamie Carmichael

Chapter 2: Admissions Fraud in Canadian Higher Education – Jamie Carmichael & Sarah Elaine Eaton

Chapter 3: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: A Tour of Axact, the “World’s Largest Diploma Mill” – Allen Ezell

Chapter 4: Bridging Today to Tomorrow: A Historical and Technological Review of Credential Exchange in Higher Education within Canada – Joanne Duklas

Chapter 5: Fair play, Fraud, or Fixed? Athletic Credentials in US Higher Education – Kirsten Hextrum

Chapter 6: Corruption in Admissions, Recruitment, Qualifications and Credentials: from Research into Quality Assurance – Stella-Maris Orim & Irene Glendinning

Chapter 7: Avoiding Favouritism in the Recruitment Practice of Turkish Higher Education Institutions Özgür Çelik & Salim Razı

Chapter 8: None of the Above: Integrity Concerns of Standardized English Proficiency Tests – Soroush Sabbaghan & Ismaeil Fazel

Chapter 9: Examining the Problem of Fraudulent English Test Scores: What Can Canadian Higher Education Institutions Learn? – Angela Clark

Chapter 10: There is no culture? A Framework for Addressing Admissions Fraud – Brendan DeCoster

Chapter 11: Security Risks, Fake Degrees, and Other Fraud: A Topic Modelling Approach – Jamie Carmichael & Sarah Elaine Eaton

Chapter 12: Are You for Real? Lessons for the Academy About Professors with Fake or Fraudulent Degrees – Sarah Elaine Eaton & Jamie Carmichael

Chapter 13: Fake Degrees and Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education: Conclusions and Future Directions – Jamie Carmichael & Sarah Elaine Eaton

About the editors

Sarah Elaine Eaton

Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada, where she also serves as the inaugural Educational Leader in Residence, Academic Integrity. Eaton’s research focuses on academic ethics in higher education. Her work can be found in the British Educational Research Journal, the Journal of Academic Ethics, the Journal of Educational Thought and Interchange, among other places. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for Educational Integrity (Springer Nature) and co-founder and co-editor of Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity. In 2020 she received the national Research and Scholarship award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education (CSSHE) for her contributions to research on academic integrity in Canadian higher education.

Jamie J. Carmichael

Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Jamie Carmichael is the Associate Registrar of Scheduling and Systems at Carleton University. She is responsible for the construction of the university timetable, scheduling and administration of examinations, the operation of two examination centres for students with disabilities, a university-wide space management system, and other core student administrative systems. Since 2009, she has received ten service excellence nominations for her work that ranges from information technology projects, team acknowledgment to innovation.

Carmichael’s research lies at the intersection of academic integrity and machine learning, with graduate education in Applied Science in Technology Information Management (Engineering). She has presented or co-presented at national and international conferences and is often called up on by specialized groups in higher education to present on her work.

Helen Pethrick

University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Helen Pethrick, MA, is a researcher and educator in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Research areas include academic integrity in higher education, post-secondary student mental health and well-being, and peer mentorship in educational settings.

Scholarships Without Scruples: 3 Signs of Bogus Scholarships and Scams

Why Universities and Colleges Need Clear Policies to Deal with Fake COVID-19 Vaccination Records and Test Results

Degrees of Deceit: A Webinar

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This blog has had over 3 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, and the Educational Leader in Residence, Academic Integrity, University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of the University of Calgary.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Contract Cheating and Freedom of Expression: How the Chicago Principles Can Help You Promote Academic Integrity on Your Campus

October 4, 2022

woman wearing brown shirt carrying black leather bag on front of library books — Photo by Abby Chung on Pexels.com

It’s that time of the year again, when contract cheating and unethical tutoring companies hand out flyers to students as they enter classrooms and leave them all over campus – littered in classrooms, strewn on benches, tacked to bulletin boards, and so on. Historically, it has been difficult for some schools to have these advertisements removed because the companies behind them have claimed censorship and threatened legal action against the institution. However, there is reason for hope, especially if your school as a Statement on Free Expression. Let me explain.

Although the original Chicago statement – and others that were modelled on it – were created to support freedom of expression, there is a small but important detail about the limitations of free speech on campus that is relevant to academic integrity. In the original version of the Chicago Principles of Freedom of Expression, it states:

“The freedom to debate and discuss the merits of competing ideas does not, of course, mean that individuals may say whatever they wish, wherever they wish. The University may restrict expression that violates the law, that falsely defames a specific individual, that constitutes a genuine threat or harassment, that unjustifiably invades substantial privacy or confidentiality interests, or that is otherwise directly incompatible with the functioning of the University.” (Chicago Principles of Freedom of Expression, p. 2, emphasis added.)

I am not a lawyer, but I am a policy scholar. (You can find out more about my academic work on higher education policy here, here, and here, for example.) When examining policy, the devil is in the details, as they say. In this case, there is an argument to be made that when contract cheating companies and unethical tutoring businesses advertise on our campuses, they are acting in a manner that is directly incompatible with the functioning of the university. As such, the institution has a right to remove advertisements from campus that promote academic misconduct.

Every school that has developed its own statement of free expression based on the Chicago principles may have this important detail included that gives it leverage to curtail the blatant advertising of contract cheating services the school, including those in Canada. For example, in 2019, the Alberta government mandated that all post-secondary institutions in the province develop a statement to affirm freedom of expression that aligned with the Chicago Principles on Free Speech. Like all higher education institutions in the province of Alberta, the University of Calgary followed the government mandate, making a formal public announcement on December 16, 2019 that it had published its Statement on Free Expression. Our institutional Statement on Free Expression is publicly available. For quick reference, here is the .pdf statement: https://www.ucalgary.ca/provost/sites/default/files/StatementonFreeExpression.pdf

The University of Calgary statement includes this sentence: “Free expression is subject to limitations imposed by law and, on our campuses, by University policies and procedures related to the functioning of the University.”

I brought this detail to the attention of our Provost at the time, Dr. Dru Marshall, pointing out that this could give the university leverage to reasonably remove advertisements for contract cheating services. The Provost agreed and informed me that she would instruct Caretaking to have the advertisements on campus removed on this basis. We currently have an Interim Provost, Dr. Penny Werthner and I recently brought this information to her attention and she responded that she too, would take action.

Any post-secondary institution that has a Statement on Free Expression based on the Chicago principles, may be in a position to mandate the removal of advertisements that promote academic misconduct. Of course, this would need the agreement of the Provost or equivalent. I am sure that some lawyers could debate the nuances of some of this language and its implications. As I said, I am not a lawyer, but it would seem to me that in the case of Alberta at least, given that the provincial government mandated that every post-secondary institution in the province develop its own Statement on Free Expression based on the Chicago principles, and that universities and colleges across North America have widely adopted such statements that would have no doubt been scrutinized by lawyers ad nauseam, this is a policy loophole that could actually work in favour of the institution. There is a strong argument to be made that removal of advertisements that promote academic misconduct is not censorship, because communications that interfere with the functioning of the university (and that includes communications that promote academic misconduct) can reasonably be removed. This is not censorship; it is protecting the integrity of the institution.

If you live in jurisdiction that does not have legislation prohibiting the supply or advertisement of contract cheating services, but your school has a statement on free expression based on the Chicago principles, here are 5 things you can do:

Share this blog post with your Provost / Vice-President Academic (or equivalent). Let them consider how the school’s statement can help to promote academic integrity.
Ask the Provost (or equivalent) to instruct the head of caretaking that custodial should be instructed to remove the flyers and other advertisements that litter the classrooms and other areas of campus.
Ask the Provost to inform the others on the executive leadership team (e.g., vice provost of student affairs, vice provost of teaching and learning, and so on) and deans to share this information with others in their respective units.
Request that this information be shared at the next meeting of the University Senate (or in Alberta, the General Faculties Council) to ensure it is widely communicated.
Ask how you can help. If your school has an academic committee or task force, offer to join and actively contribute to the ongoing work of upholding academic integrity at your own institution.

Institutions can take action against contract cheating. The annual International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating is fast approaching. It’s on October 19 this year. If your school hasn’t already signed up, you can still do so. Widespread removal of contract cheating advertisements could be a campus-wide event that students, staff, and administrators all participate in on that day, and every day.

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This blog has had over 3 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Now Published: Contract Cheating in Higher Education

August 11, 2022

Eaton, Curtis, Clare, Stoesz, Seeland & Rundle cover

Now published: Contract Cheating in Higher Education: Global Perspectives on Theory, Practice, and Policy (Eaton, Curtis, Stoesz, Clare, Rundle, & Seeland, 2022). This volume, published by Palgrave MacMillan, includes twenty chapters from contributors across Australia, North America, and Europe:

Introduction: Contract cheating and introduction to the problem. – Curtis, G. J., Clare, J., Rundle, K., Eaton, S. E., Stoesz, B. M., & Seeland, J.
What can we learn from measuring crime when looking to quantify the prevalence and incidence of contract cheating? – Clare, J., & Rundle, K.
Limitations of contract cheating research. – Krásničan, V., Foltýnek, T., & Dlabolová, D. H.
Essay mills and contract cheating from a legal point of view. – Draper, M.
Leveraging college copyright ownership against file-sharing and contract cheating websites. – Seeland, J., Eaton, S. E., & Stoesz, B. M.
The encouragement of file sharing behaviours through technology and social media: Impacts on student cheating behaviours and academic piracy. – Rogerson, A. M.
Higher education assessment design. – Sutherland-Smith, W., & Dawson, P.
Critical thinking as an antidote to contract cheating. – Stoesz, B. M., Eaton, S. E., & Seeland, J.
Contract cheating and the Dark Triad traits. – Baran, L., & Jonason, P. K.
Contract cheating: The influence of attitudes and emotions. – Curtis, G. J., & Tindall, I. K.
Applying situational crime prevention techniques to contract cheating. – Clare, J.
Presentation, Properties and Provenance: the three Ps of identifying evidence of contract-cheating in student assignments. – Crockett, R.
“(Im)possible to prove”: Formalising academic judgement evidence in contract cheating cases using bibliographic forensics. – Ellis, C., Rogerson, A. M., House, D., & Murdoch, K.
Aligning academic quality and standards with academic integrity – Glendinning, I.
Addressing contract cheating through staff-student partnerships. – Lancaster, T.
The extortionate cost of contract cheating. – Veeran-Colton, T., Sefcik, L., & Yorke, J.
The rise of contract cheating in graduate education. – Parnther, C.
Listening to ghosts: A qualitative study of narratives from contract cheating writers from the 1930s onwards. – Eaton, S. E., Stoesz, B. M., & Seeland, J.
Assessment brokering and collaboration: Ghostwriter and student academic literacies. – Thacker, E. J.
Conclusion – Eaton, S. E., Stoesz, B. M., Seeland, J. Curtis, G. J., Clare, J., & Rundle, K.

Updates:

October 4, 2022 – The final proofs have been submitted to the publisher. The book now moves into production and should be available very soon!

October 28, 2022 – The book has now been published!

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Marking the 50-year anniversary of an attempt to legislate against contract cheating in Canada

June 14, 2022

The Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) in Canada has launched a new national Committee on Academic Integrity and Contract Cheating (CAICC). With more than 40 members from universities and colleges across Canada, this committee will focus on how to promote academic integrity and take action against term paper mills and other forms of contract cheating.

In my open access book chapter “Contract Cheating in Canada: A Comprehensive Overview”, I provide details of an attempt to legislate against contract cheating. Bill 174 was brought forward in the Ontario provincial legislature by the Hon. Albert Roy on June 14, 1972. I often wonder how different things would be in Canada today if that legislation had passed.

As I was digging into that research, I looked up Albert Roy and found that after he’d left politics, he went on to practice laws and was later appointed as a judge. He appeared to be doing some work for a mediation consultancy firm, so I decided I’d drop him an e-mail to tell him about how important this attempt at legislation was, even if it failed. I never heard back, and I figured he was just busy.

After our book, Academic Integrity in Canada was published, I e-mailed him again to let him know so he could read about how contract cheating in Canada had evolved and what we were doing to take action against it. I never heard back… So a while back, I decided to be cheeky and leave him a voice mail.

Last week on Wednesday when I was attending the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) conference in Ottawa, my phone rang just before lunch. I answered and lo and behold, it was Albert Roy calling me back! He let me know that he’d never received the e-mails but was glad that I phoned.

During our conversation I asked if he’d like me to send him a copy of the book chapter in which I’d written about contract cheating in Canada, including the legislation he’d proposed. He said yes and proceeded to give me his mailing address. After he’d finished, I said,

“You’re in Ottawa!”

“Yes,” he replied.

“I’m in Ottawa! I’m here from Calgary for a conference on teaching and learning in higher education!”

One thing led to another and with the permission of the conference organizers, I asked Albert if he’d might have time and interest to drop by my session on Friday morning. (Of course, I figured he’d be busy, off doing whatever it is that retired people do…) To my utter surprise and delight, he said yes, he’d be happy to stop by.

So, on Friday morning, just as he’d promised, Albert Roy showed up to the Ottawa conference centre and we had a few minutes to chat before the session and even agreed to offer a few remarks.

A group photo with Janice Miller-Young, Albert Roy, and Sarah Elaine Eaton — Left to right: Janice Miller-Young, Albert Roy, and Sarah Elaine Eaton. Photo taken at the 2022 STLHE conference in Ottawa on 10 June, 2022.

We snapped the photo above just before my presentation started. At the beginning of the session I was introduced by Julia Christensen Hughes, who co-edited Academic Integrity in Canada: An Enduring and Essential Challenge with me.

I went through most of my slides. (By the way, you can download a complete copy of my slides from the conference here.)

When I got to the slide about the proposed legislation, I told everyone in the audience that we had the honour of having Albert Roy with us to share some of his insights. We’d kept it under wraps and it was a surprise for just about everyone.

Albert captivated us with his recollections of being called a “radical” and a “communist” for proposing legislation that would have made term papers illegal and also for proposing other legislation mandating the use of seat belts.

Beatriz Moya, a PhD student studying with me at the University of Calgary took a video of Albert Roy’s remarks and later gave us permission to share it:

This was truly an historic moment for us and Albert Roy left us all feeling energized and inspired.

On June 14, 2022, exactly fifty years to the day after Albert Roy proposed legislation that would have made contract cheating illegal in the province of Ontario, we will have the inaugural meeting of our new national committee on academic integrity and contract cheating. We chose the date of our first meeting for its symbolism weeks before Albert Roy and I had a chance to speak on the phone. Now, this date is even more symbolic as more than 40 committee members will gather to talk about the future of academic integrity in Canada, how to protect it and how to uphold it.

I will be forever grateful to Albert Roy for the work he did as a politician and also for the inspiration he brought us fifty years later as we continue the work.

If you’d like to show your appreciation to Albert Roy for his efforts to legislate against contract cheating, join the thank you card campaign.

New book: Academic Integrity in Canada

Contract Cheating in Canada: Exploring Legislative Options

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Learning, Teaching and Leadership