Carrot or stick Student engagement with Turnitin

1
Carrot or stick? Student engagement with Turnitin

• Implementing Turnitin as a formative writing tool
  at the University of Kent
• Judy Cohen
• Des Laffey
• Bill Collier

2
Background

• Autumn 2005 pilot of Turnitin
• November 2005 Workshop by Jude Carroll
• March 2006 recommended purchase of Turnitin
  licence
• Autumn 2006 Turnitin made available to all staff

3
Implementation of Turnitin

• Available via WebCT plug-in
• Available to all staff
• Guidelines for the use of Turnitin developed
  (http//www.kent.ac.uk/uelt/ai/students/guide.htm)
  
• Additional web resources on using Turnitin,
  plagiarism and good academic practice created
  (http//www.kent.ac.uk/uelt/ai/index.htm)

4
Turnitin concerns for staff

• Electronic submission
• Matching printed and electronic assignments
• Some questions over using Turnitin as a sampling
  tool
• Confusion over percentages in OR
• Requests from other institutions?

5
Student concerns before the trial

• Concern over IP rights to work (staff too)
• Introduction of bias in marking
• Acceptable minimum/maximum percentages
• Fairness of application

6
Piloting Turnitin as a formative writing tool

• Autumn/spring piloting the formative use of
  Turnitin in L2 Economics course and L3,L4
  business courses
• Economics (B Collier) Students given a
  draft/revision assignment
• Business courses (D Laffey) students given free
  access to Turnitin
• Both groups given two sessions with Turnitin
• Using Turnitin and uploading work
• Interpreting the originality report
• Students advised that Turnitin will be used

7
Use by Des Laffey

• Used at Undergraduate (Years 2 and 3) and
  Postgraduate Levels (MSc and MBA)
• Found it to be a useful tool in identifying
  plagiarism and the actual student contribution
• It has not been a burden as DL previously spent
  hundreds of hours per year manually searching for
  plagiarism

8
The Business School

• One of the largest departments at the University
  of Kent
• Turnitin has been used this academic year at
• Undergraduate Level All years
• Postgraduate Level
• Research PhD proposals
• Procedures were followed as laid down by UELT

9
Implementation issues in KBS

• Turnitin has to be implemented carefully
• Need to be clear about what plagiarism is and
  what constitutes good academic practice
• Explaining how Turnitin works
• Live Demo listening to the pin drop
• The formative experience
• Tool not a replacement for the Lecturers
  judgement

10
Implementation issues in KBS (Cont.)

• Explaining why it is being used
• Getting student support for the use of Turnitin
• Protecting the reputation of their degrees
• Experience in KBS you cannot mention it enough
  times in its early days
• Part of a process of steering students to quality
  sources

11
Implementation issues in KBS

• Reward good behaviour of those who do not
  plagiarise
• Do not just look at the headline number for the
  report
• Add value to feedback for the students
• Where they have referenced well, partially, not
  at all
• Speed camera problem what about modules where
  no-one gets caught?
• What about modules where Turnitin is not used and
  students are told this?

12
What would you recommend to staff?

• Use it on every student and every module
• Be specific about the processing time for
  essays
• Some of the matches are not the ones I used
• Its a very useful tool and should be used
  often
• It should be available to students
• It should be a policing tool with only one copy
  to be handed in

13
What did you like about using the software?

• Good way of encouraging students to use their
  own words
• Easy to use and I support its use
• Helped significantly with proper referencing
• Useful to see how my work matches up with other
  texts
• It improved my writing style and the layout of
  my essay

14
Did you find the workshop on the originality
report useful?

• I learned
• How to reference without plagiarism
• My work was fine
• How many references I used
• There will be a certain amount of matching text
• How I should reference and time management
• That I could have plagiarised unknowingly
• The level of plagiarism I had
• Nothing- I knew my references were correct

15
What would recommend to students?

• The annoying thing is Turnitin shortens the
  official deadline
• Its necessary to ensure university standards
• It seemed daunting at first but its
  beneficial
• Helpful way to avoid plagiarism
• Can be over-sensitive
• Take the time to use it

16
Final comments

• Pitfalls include
• setting up draft/revision assignments
• Promoting student engagement
• Future steps
• Write a specific ½ page outline and guide to
  Turnitin
• Formative assessment regular Turnitin assignment
  with unlimited resubmissions
• Summative assessment draft/revision assignment
  and allow viewing of the OR
• The first page of the OR printed and attached
  behind cover sheet

17
How would you use the originality report?

• How would you use the OR in a class? What would
  you focus on?
• Or
• How could you encourage students to take more
  time over checking and proofreading their work?
  Can the OR help?
• Last word