Free-riding in Group Work - Mechanisms and Countermeasures

Abstract

Cheating and free-riding has always been a sensitive topic in the academic world. If one,
by cheating or free-riding, can attain a respectable degree or grade, the credibility of this
degree would deteriorate quickly. Two principal roles of the Swedish university teacher are the
“teaching” role and the “policing” role. The “teaching” role involves facilitating the students
learning while the “policing” role is directed towards guaranteeing that a student that is given
a certain grade or degree has fulfilled the contract between student and university associated
with that grade or degree (i.e. done the expected work). The motivation for the “policing”
role is the maintenance of the public trust in the education system. It is clear that students
successfully cheating or free-riding can damage the public trust into the educational system.
Thus, policing could be considered necessary. In Sweden, the task of policing in connection
with a course or an education is normally put on the teachers working with the curriculum
in question. External examiners, or similar arrangements, are rarely employed as a means
of quality assurance. This has given Swedish university teachers a double role towards the
student, both as the “good” helper to learn and mature in a subject, and as the “evil” examiner
and controller, implicitly threatening to not pass students or give low grades. In this work we
will dig deeper into free-riding in group work, its mechanisms, and possible countermeasures.
A number of aspects of free-riding will be detailed in the following chapters and examples.