Supporting Teaching with TurnItIn.com

Friday, May 26, 2006 from 08:30 AM to 11:30 AM
(Kent Library Little Theatre)

Turnitin is a Web-based utility that helps faculty and students assess the originality of student work. Upon submission of a paper, Turnitin compares the work with other works present on the Internet and in several large databases. The result is an "originality report" that rates the originality as a percentage, and, where there is a match to earlier work, provides references to the source(s).

In this session, we will explore how Turnitin works, how it can be implemented in a course, and how it can be used interactively with students to emphasize and illustrate concepts of intellectual property and academic honesty.

Tentative Schedule

TIME

ACTIVITY

8:30 - 8:40

8:40 - 9:15

Teaching, Learning, and Plagiarism:  What is plagiarism, and is it a problem for us? Do we need to agree on the meaning of plagiarism?

For those who like information organized into tables, click on a document produced by the Office of Instruction and Research Technology at William Patterson University. This document takes the view that plagiarism is a problem.

Our unsophisticated definition: plagiarism is the use of "unoriginal material" as if the writer had been the author of the material.

What are we up against? See an example ... But is this all we should be worried about?

Anti-plagiarism vs. academic integrity culture

• Student awareness

• Honor Codes

• Faculty involvement (assignment construction, use of disciplinary committee)

• Penalties

""Read is a 4-letter word they detest."" That's the issue.  Plagiarism seems to me (sorry) utterly trivial compared to it. - Russ Hunt

Center for Academic Integrity (CAI)

9:15 - 9:25

9:25 - 10:20

a. Help documentation (Instructor User Guide)
b. Creating a user profile
c. Account join

a. Add class
b. Adding assignments
c. Other controls

a. Submission by students
b. Submission by professor
c. Originality reports

(video on how to read an originality report)

Examples of fake ‘paper’ submissions of various originality

d. Quick Submit

4. Optional and Additional features (extra fee; intended to make TII into a Course Management System)

• Peer Review

• Grademark

• Gradebook

• Digital Portfolio

• Calendar

• Discussion Boards

• Libraries

10:20 - 10:35

- Break -

10:35 - 11:20

• Faculty or student submission?
• Submit before grading or at time of grading?
• In how many classes can a paper be used?
• What can TII teach your students about intellectual property?

It was a very positive experience for me. Far from being a digital policeman, I found that Turnitin.com was actually an excellent teaching tool. When student work was not cited properly, I was able to sit down with them and explain the importance of citations, and demonstrate to them where the problems lay. Having Turnitin.com do the "detective work" took some of the confrontation out of this situation.

Prof. Gillian Mothersill
Ryerson University

Research Resources   Instructor/Student Resources from Turnitin.com

2. Does Turnitin respect Intellectual Property?

Legal Documents How does Turnitin comply with FERPA, COPPA and copyright laws?

 

Is this a student paper? Exploring Turnitin's digital fingerprint system

PPT     HTML

11:20-11:30