Hi
We have been piloting and now using Turnitin as a service at Bradford for
the last 4 years and we have subscribed to the service until 2008. Take up
was very low until it was fully integrated with our VLE, Blackboard. Now
that the 'plagiarism checking' is an integral part of submitting an
assignment electronically and the students upload their own assignments it
is being used more widely within the University.
We use it as part of what we hope is a holistic approach to helping our
students develop good academic practice
(http://www.brad.ac.uk/admin/acsec/assu/statement_on_academic_integrity.htm)
and our policy on plagiarism
(http://www.brad.ac.uk/admin/acsec/assu/university_policy_on_plagiarism.htm)
.
In terms of staff development, I try to encourage them to use it
developmentally and to let the students see the originality reports and
allow multiple submissions until the assignment deadline. This is
particularly promoted as best practice for first year students.
Issues include
- getting students 'informed' consent (see below)
- changing assessment regulations to allow electronic submission. Since the
University has a devolved structure, this also had to be agreed at School
level by individual schools.
- in December we ran into a technical problem when the Turnitin server
appeared to either go off-line or respond very slowly at a critical
submission deadline and students were unable to submit their assignments.
Since students can be penalised for late submission, we are having to
re-examine our regulations to address this issue.
> Do your students have to give permission for their work to be
> electronically scrutinised?
Students sign to agree to this and many other regulatory conditions each
year as part of their enrolment/re-enrollment. I am not sure it counts as
informed consent. So, we have also added a form of words to their assignment
submission front cover sheet, where they have signed to say the submission
is their own work, to include the information that it will/may be submitted
to the turnitin service. These words are also supposed to be included as
part of the online submission instructions on each assignment submission
area.
>
> Does electronic submission cause any issues?
We have not agreed a consistent policy across the university as to use - it
is at the discretion of each School and in some cases individual lecturer.
Most schools have had to amend their assessment submission procedures and
ask for one electronic copy and one paper copy (instead of two paper
copies).
Staff seem to use it in one of three ways:
a. submit all assignments and weed out the plagiarised ones before marking
b. as a, but mark all regardless.
c. mark first and only submit those that the lecturer has suspicions about.
The issue I outlined above re unresponsive Turnitin system is a major
concern if we are relying on it for summative assessment.
Secondly, we have a policy of anonymous marking which is not possible for
assignments submitted via Blackboard or Turnitin and is causing us major
problems. If anyone has found a solution I would like to hear about it.
> Does using Turnitin increase staff workload significantly?
No data. No explicit feedback on this issue from staff.
> Have you had any issues regarding Intellectual Property Rights?
We are aware of theoretical issues but none of these have turned into
practical problems as yet.
Regards
Carol
Carol Higgison
Senior Adviser on e-Learning, University of Bradford
Tel 01274 233291, Email [log in to unmask]
http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/tqeg/information/staff/carol_higgison.php
*************************************************************************
You are subscribed to the JISC Plagiarism mailing list. To Unsubscribe, change
your subscription options, or access list archives, visit
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/PLAGIARISM.html
*************************************************************************
|