U.K. Advertising Trade Groups: Don't Carry Cheating Ads

Plus, the cheating ATM keeps running in the U.S. Plus, please go vote on SxSW panels.

Issue 144

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Advertising Groups in U.K. Suggest Advertisers Not Take Cheating Ads

Two advertising trade associations in the U.K. - the Advertising Standards Authority and the Committee of Advertising Practice - have advised publishers not to carry ads for essay mills and contract cheating providers.

Citing the new laws in parts of the U.K. (see Issue 114), the ad groups say:

Publishers in England and/or targeting English consumers are therefore best advised not to carry ads for such services. 

The groups also say, importantly, that though the geography of the law does not cover the entire U.K., they suggest publishers anywhere in the U.K. avoid the ads. They say further:

The ASA/CAP would seek to take robust action, along with our Trading Standards backstop if required, to resolve any breaches that may occur.

Robust action.

This is evidence of the actual power of legislating against cheating and cheating companies - not the threat of direct government but what companies and associations will do to be seen as legally compliant. In this case, cut down on their advertising, even without so much as a government request. When internet providers and social media sites and financial processors move in that direction as well, it will become increasingly difficult to sell cheating services in the U.K., which was the point.

Meanwhile, In the United States

As publishers in the U.K. are advised to turn down revenue from cheaters, the ATM is still wide open in The States.

The most recent example is this “sponsored” article appearing in the Tampa Bay Times with the helpful headline:

Do My Essay: 10 Writing Services That Will Save You Time and Trouble

It’s not too much different than the numerous, nauseating examples we’ve seen over and over again. Though even by those standards, this one is pretty brazen. It says:

Today, anyone can order an essay online and have it delivered within hours. That’s not even a thing to hesitate over: thousands of students pay for online writing assistance daily.

What’s worse, the Tampa Bay Times is a highly respected paper - winner of multiple Pulitzer Prizes and home to the largest newsroom in Florida.

If you can put aside a very credible news outlet hawking cheating for a few bucks, which you absolutely should not, remember too that the win for these essay mills isn’t just the visibility and the credibility of “appearing” in a big, mainstream daily paper. Links from places such as the Times have major value to Google, shooting their homepages up worldwide search results - exposing their services to multiples more people.

You Can Help, Right Now - SxSW Edu

If you don’t know it, SxSW Edu is one of the top handful of education conferences and events in the United States. Getting on stage to present or speak is considered a big deal - every year, thousands of people apply. This year there are more than 4,500 panel submissions, featuring easily 10,000 applicants. Maybe 150 are picked.

SxSW Edu is somewhat unique in that it lets the public vote on what panels and presentations will be included. The vote is not the only factor, but we are told it counts.

This is where you come in.

You can, right now, from wherever you are, add your votes to elevate topics on academic integrity and also vote against the topics and panels featuring cheating companies.

Yes, Chegg and Course Hero and Quizlet have all put in to appear at SwSW and the conference has a “down vote” option, so you may share your opinion accordingly. I probably don’t need to underscore what a problem it is when commercial cheating profiteers try to appear in legitimate education settings - although I just did.

As a reader of “The Cheat Sheet,” I don’t ask you to do much. At least I do not think I do. You being here, reading and sharing is enough for me. And candidly, too often, what any of us can do to protect academic honesty and genuine learning is limited. That’s part of the problem.

So, if you can, please do visit these links and vote. I am asking. You may be required to create an account, but it’s free and should take you no more than one minute. After you vote, share these links with your colleagues, and networks and on social media, if you’re willing.

Thank you.

Academic Integrity Topics to Vote Up

Pandemic Effects on Exams and Student Behavior

I agreed to be on this panel along with Karen Symms Gallagher, former Dean of the College of Education at the University of Southern California, and Jarret Dyer, former President of the National College Testing Association, from the College of DuPage.

Lessons in Law: Cheating Is Now Illegal

This one features Tricia Bertram-Gallant, an expert in academic integrity at University of California, San Diego and Christian Moriarty, another expert, from St. Petersburg College.

Cheating Live: Former Essay Mill Writer Tells All

I agreed to be on this one too and I think, if it makes it, it will be a blast. I’m set to appear with Dave Tomar a former paid essay mill writer, Eric Wang, Vice President, Artificial Intelligence at Turnitin and Amel Ben Abdesslem of Marymount University. As the title foretells, we are going to use a paid cheating provider and AI to cheat, live.

The Score Live @SXSW: The Culture of Misconduct

The great podcast, The Score, hosted by education writer Kathryn Baron, will record a special show, live at SxSW. It will feature Tricia Bertram Gallant, Karen Symms Gallagher and others - plus audience comments.

Events or Topics With Cheating Providers to Vote Down

Chegg has put in to be featured on three panels. Here are the links and titles:

Meet Outstanding Students Impacting the World

Higher Ed Spotlight Live Podcast Taping

Impact & Future of NIL Rights on College Sports

Course Hero wants to be on two panels:

How Educators Can Put the Ed In EdTech

How “Zillennials” Redefine Teaching & Learning

This one, I love. It actually starts, “too often, higher ed relies on tired archetypes.” Like not cheating, I imagine. Just imagine how great it would be for Course Hero if we agreed to “redefine” cheating as not cheating.

And Quizlet has one:

Teach Don’t Preach: Using Education to Engage

The organizers of this one inexplicably asked me to host it. I declined and told them why I would not.

Again, thank you for going to vote on these.

If we’re going to do anything about academic misconduct, we have to talk about academic misconduct while also calling out cheating providers for what they are.

And finally, these are only the cheating-related submissions I know of. If you know of others that promote academic integrity or engage misconduct - or see others featuring cheating companies - please send them to me and I’ll include them too. You can search all the SxSW submissions here: https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote

Police in India Bust Gang for Cheating English Language Exams

Reporting out of India says that police have arrested a gang for helping students cheat an English language exam - guaranteeing results in exchange for cash.

The translation makes the exact details unclear, but it seems the gang ran their own test center and had allies within the exam provider, allowing them to get the test early. With an early copy, they fitted test centers with Bluetooth transmitters and dictated answers to their paying clients.

The cheated exam was the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

The Department of Corrections

In the last Issue, I shared news about Course Hero acquiring OER resources from Lumen Learning, which is what they did. I said Course Hero acquired the company, which they did not do. That’s my error. I apologize.