Yrurtj

One of the adjuncts that I work with found that one of their students had posted their assignment on a freelancer website asking for the solution. We joked that he should place a bid and fail them afterwards and had a lengthy discussion about sting operations and entrapment. In the end we came to the conclusion we were not the police and to let the chair know, but ultimately take no action.

I was wondering about the ethics of anonymously giving this student a flagged solution with the goal of identifying the student and removing them from the class.

Some additional clarifications:

• Assume that the student clearly only wants the solutions for a grade, and is not asking for assistance in understanding the material


• This would be done as a private transfer of documents (like email), not a public posting (like a stackoverflow answer), to avoid issues of other students stumbling upon the flagged solution.


• We would provide the correct solution but with some additional embedded data that identifies the source like metadata, comments, and in the case of code extraneous steps that don't break the solution, but don't add any value

What about a constructive approach? Since you are already familiar with the website the student is using, why not show him the way to the solution instead of handing it to him in full?

I do not know about the specifics of your situation, but in my opinion you should try to positively influence the student rather than playing a prank.

(I'd still find it pretty funny, tough)

Sending him a modified solution can create new problems: what arw you going to do if half of the class has a marked solution?

In my opinion, this approach would be questionable ethic-wise at best, because you are actively helping the student to fail.

It is unethical if you plan to punish them for the offense you are entrapping them to commit (submitting under their own name an assignment done by someone else). But I think it’s ethical, though potentially still problematic, if you plan to only punish them for the offense they have already committed (soliciting solutions for a homework assignment on a freelancer website), and are only engaging in the “sting” to solve the practical problem of identifying the student who has committed that offense.

The point is that there are two dishonest, punishable acts beings discussed here, one that was already committed and the other that is at this point only (presumably) contemplated. The student has already done something that violates most universities’ code of conduct by posting online the solicitation for someone else to do their homework assignment. It would be completely reasonable for you to punish them if you knew who they were. So I don’t see an ethical issue with a sting operation carried out exclusively for the purpose of finding the identity of the offending student, which effectively can be regarded as doing detective work to catch a cheater. Edit: you should also plan to give back to the student any money they pay you for the freelance work.

As for punishing the student for the (more egregious) future offense, which at this point is still hypothetical, you should keep in mind that without your “sting” the student might well end up failing to find a freelancer to help them cheat, or simply have a change of heart at the last minute. I think it would be pretty obviously unethical to actively assist them in cheating, which actually increases the chance that they will engage in this behavior, and then punish them for that cheating. The student would be very likely to argue that they would not have gone through with the cheating if it weren’t for your “help”, and, while this may or may not be true, since you can’t say with confidence whether it’s true or not I think it’s actually a pretty compelling argument.

Finally, I mentioned that even the ethical approach is potentially problematic. What I mean is, first of all, the argument that it is ethical is a bit tricky and I’m not 100% sure everyone will agree with it. Moreover, the sting might violate some policy or be disapproved of by the administration for reasons of public relations or other things not directly related to ethics. And second of all, from an educational point of view your role as an educator is not to entrap but to educate, while still maintaining a minimum level of integrity. Since the student has not yet actually copied the homework, if there is any way you can prevent the copying from happening without a sting, I think that would be vastly preferable. (For example, you could email the class and make it clear you are aware of the illicit use of the freelancer website, and warn about severe consequences for anyone caught using it, and maybe even announce a change in the assignment due to this violation, or something along those lines that could deter the cheater.)

[We] had a lengthy discussion about sting operations and entrapment

The distinction between the two is important here. A sting catches someone doing something they were already going to do. Entrapment is where you trick them into doing it in the first place. If you posted an advertisement offering to solve the assignment for them, and some students took you up on that, that would be entrapment, and would definitely be unethical: they might not have cheated if you hadn't posted the advertisement.

But in this case, they have already chosen to cheat. The only thing you can change is whether the assignment that they cheated on is easily recognizable as such. In some cases, it's hard to distinguish between a sting and entrapment. That isn't the case here; there's a (presumably) timestamped job posting the proves they were planning to do this before you got involved.

You should still definitely run this by the department chair or someone first if you decide to do it, though. It looks similar to entrapment even though it isn't, and it's better to justify your actions before you do them, instead of letting it be an unpleasant surprise when the student complains later.

The fact that you'd be getting paid to do the assignment is an issue, as well. Returning the fee to the cheater after catching them probably addresses this issue. (And maybe turn it over to the department in the meantime, to avoid the appearance of potential impropriety.)

As long as it is completely unambiguous that the student intends to cheat, I do not think it would be unethical to "entrap" them. The important principle is that, in your capacity as the "freelancer" providing the "flagged solution", you do not at any point encourage or incite the student to cheat.

When the student is caught, he/she will probably claim that he/she only wanted some guidance, not the solution, and that the "freelancer" misinterpreted his/her wishes. To ensure that you cannot be accused of inciting misconduct, it is important that the written evidence (electronic-mail correspondence is admissible as evidence in a court of law) demonstrates beyond doubt that, after having made a good faith effort to assist the student to an extent that would not constitute cheating, the student insisted, on his/her own initiative, upon having the complete solution.

I think that the legality of doing this would be in question in a lot of places. I doubt that the police could do a similar thing (in the US) without first obtaining a court order, for example.

I think the ethics of it might also be questionable, but I think a discussion with an ethicist might be in order. The reason for the requirement for a court order, by the way, is to get an independent, non interested, opinion as to the propriety, as well as the legality.

You made the right decision IMO to avoid doing this and to be cautious about it.

However, if students are informed specifically or generally that such sites are monitored it might at least cut down on the practice. Of course it would be more useful if such assignments could be marked on those sites when they appear.

Ultimately, of course, while we want to "catch a thief" it is better all around if we can prevent the theft in the first place.

Based on the comments here let me add that I haven't claimed that the activity is definitely illegal anywhere, only that it might be. Moreover, my suggestions to avoid this action is to save people from potential grief that they might suffer by taking an action that "seems fair, but is foul". I try not to recommend risky behavior and generally caution people against it. Your desires may differ, of course.