Ghostwriting and contract cheating

Source: https://learninglab.rmit.edu.au/university-essentials/acting-academic-integrity/ghostwriting-and-contract-cheating/ Parent: https://learninglab.rmit.edu.au/university-essentials/acting-academic-integrity/

If someone completes an assignment for you without payment, it is called ghostwriting. If they do it for payment, it is called contract cheating. Both are considered academic misconduct. Let's find out more.

Assessments are your opportunity to show off your skills and prove what you have learned. It is crucial that you complete your assessments yourself so that your academic qualifications are legitimate.

If someone else completes an assessment on your behalf so that you can submit it as your own work, it means that you are missing out on the chance to learn and that you will not gain the skills you need for your future career. It also means that the person who actually wrote the paper is not credited for their work.

Furthermore, there have been cases where the providers of contract cheating services have collected information about students and then used this information for exploitation and blackmail.

Ghostwriting and artificial intelligence tools

Your instructor might permit you to use artificial intelligence tools that generate text, such as Val or ChatGPT, in your assessments. Make sure that you are following your assessment instructions carefully. For example, when you do use an AI tool, it must be properly cited. Using an AI tool when it’s not permitted could be considered ghostwriting and a breach of academic integrity.

Check your understanding

Read the following scenarios and decide whether or not the students have acted with integrity.\ \ Images in the activity by RMIT, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Keywords

• Academic integrity
• Artificial intelligence

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