Trinity College Dublin has advised all its academic staff to take precautions to safeguard the circulation of their work online, as a number of external online companies are offering to make them available for commercial gain.
The college sent an email to staff on December 9th asking them to exercise vigilance as they prepared revision materials for this academic term, and teaching aids for next year.
“This may include slide decks, digital teaching aids (including handouts and lecture notes), and anything else you would typically upload to Blackboard or other VLEs [Virtual Learning Environments] used in your teaching,” the note said. “It may also include material posted to personal or School/Department web pages and circulated by email.”
Trinity said that in recent months it had been made aware that a number of external online companies were offering to make notes and slides prepared by lecturers available for commercial gain.
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“More alarmingly, an expression of interest in these materials by a student can often lead to an offer to complete an assignment by a third party, ie to engage in contract cheating,” it said.
“The College is currently taking steps to address this issue. In the meantime, it would be prudent going forward if all colleagues who post material online could include a simple copyright line in the footer of every page prepared for circulation.”
The email was signed by Prof Martine Smith, Dean of Graduate Studies; Prof David Shepherd, a senior lecturer; and Prof Philip Coleman, a junior dean. It followed another recent email to students about academic integrity.
A spokeswoman for Trinity said it was aware that students from outside the college who express interest in the academic materials may also be targeted with offers to have assignments written for them.
“Contract cheating” is a continuing problem for Irish higher education, as a global industry is targeting students with unsolicited offers to write bespoke essays or to complete assignments to tight deadlines. These are often designed to get past plagiarism-detection software.
[ Irish higher education ‘under threat’ from global cheating industryOpens in new window ]
The trend was exacerbated by the pandemic, due to a shift towards more remote learning and exams.
In 2019, Ireland introduced legislation that prohibits the operation or promotion of contract cheating services, but this is only effective against companies based here.
Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) is responsible for bringing prosecutions under the law, and those convicted can receive a fine of up to €100,000 and/or a prison term of up to five years.
Universities and colleges use plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin, but paid-for assignments can beat the system as they seem to be original work.
