For the past 20 years or so my department has required all course essays
to be word-processed or typewritten.
But here's a story you might like. I had a module in which all the
materials were on line, and seminars were given by one of my colleagues.
A student asked why they had to use computers, and my colleague gave the
(not very accurate) response that using computers was a useful skill for
future employment. 'Not for me,' the student said. 'Why not? What job
are you going to have?' 'I'm going to be a writer.'
George.
-----Original Message-----
From: Plagiarism [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Derek J
Ord
Sent: 11 January 2007 16:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: How do you find using Turnitin?
Has anyone ever come across a student who refuses to do their work on a
computer and insists on submitting handwritten essays? Or do
institutions have strict requirements in this area?
Just thinking aloud.....
Derek.
_________________________________
Derek Ord
Head of Student Administrative Services
University of Hull
(01482) 465980
-----Original Message-----
From: Plagiarism [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Carol
Higgison
Sent: 11 January 2007 16:37
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: How do you find using Turnitin?
Basically we archive and mark the electronic copy. The paper copy is
only a backup.
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
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Plagiarism [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Burkhard Schafer
> Sent: 11 January 2007 16:27
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: How do you find using Turnitin?
>
> This was indeed one of the options we discussed. What was pointed out
> to me though was: how do you know that electronic copy and backup are
> identical? A clever student could upload a bad but "own work" essay,
> and submit the plagiarised one for assessment...
> The alternative was to submit electronically, and then our teaching
> office would print them out for the lecturer - which has costs
> implications with very large classes
>
> Burkhard
>
> Sandy Steacy wrote:
> > Just a couple of suggestions based on the last post.
> >
> > In order to make things as easy as possible for the lecturers, we
> > require our students to submit their work twice - once in hardcopy
> > for marking the other electronically for plagiarism assessment. The
> > latter is via submit.ac.uk, in other words our students upload their
> > own work to the website, we do not.
> >
> > I then use the system in two ways: i) I skim the reports for any
> > assessments getting high scores and ii) I check up on any papers
> > that seem suspicious to me when I mark them. Note that all my
> > teaching is at undergraduate level.
> >
> > Sandy
> >
> > Burkhard Schafer wrote:
> >> Dear Janet
> >>
> >> I trialled it for our LLM some time back and recommended against
> >> it, BUT mainly because of the specific issues of our programme.
> >>
> >> In a "mock essay" for improving essay writing skills, and with a
> >> cohort of 35 students, I asked three to plagiarise in their essay,
> >> the others were supposed to follow guidelines and procedures, and
> >> as there was nothing at stake, I assume they did.
> >>
> >> Nonetheless, the system returned 33 as "potential plagiarism" - law
> >> students simply have to use literal quotes a lot, from court cases
> >> and statutes,and as these are all online, and the system as it then
> >> was did not identify properly cited references (and the
> >> particularities of citing court cases makes this difficult
> >> anyway), they of course all got lots of material highlighted. Of
> >> the two who were not so identified, one would simply have failed
> >> precisely because s/he did not refer to any authorities. The other
> >> one was one of my "intentional plagiarisers" who was really clever.
> >> The other three were identified
> >> - but not for the material they had actually plagiarised! By
> >> contrast,I had identified all three unassisted by technology -
> >> though the test was easy for me, and tough on Turnitin:
> >>
> >> One had handed in a translated chapter from a German textbook
> >> (cheeky sod), the other had copied from an article that was only
> >> ever published on paper, and rightfully forgotten, so nobody ever
> >> quotes it in an online document (one of mine, as a matter of fact,
> >> double cheeky sod)and the third had changed the sentences
> >> sufficiently to get away with it.
> >>
> >> Even though the system was free at the time, there were some
> >> "costs" - moving to electronic essay delivery, increased admin also
> >> for the IP waiver form, and for me, I found reading/marking the
> >> analysed essays on screen rather a strain on the eyes, time
consuming and difficult.
> >> While none of these costs were prohibitive, the system would have
> >> to have provided more benefits - by marking the essays in the
> >> traditional way, was much faster AND more reliable/efficient in
> >> detecting
plagiarism.
> >>
> >> Couple of comments:
> >> the newer versions of the system ought to be better, and I was
> >> asked to test it again by my school. If the number of false
> >> positives is deceasing significantly, that would change things.
> >>
> >> The lack of benefits was clearly linked to the nature of the
> >> course,and one of my conclusions was that it is not good to make a
> >> central decision, but to devolve it to subjects or even degree
> >> programs. For instance, if we used essays in the much larger
> >> undergraduate classes, my answer might haven been different:
> >> collaboration more than plagiarism would be the main concern and
> >> turnitin is good for that. For plagiarism, we would expect more of
> >> the simple "cut and paste" variety than from our more sophisticated
> >> Master students, also the issue of plagiarism from foreign language
> >> material would be less of an issue. The manageable size of the
> >> master class allowed me to set more personalised questions which
> >> made collusion difficult, and using essay banks impossible - again,
> >> with different types of classes, this may not always be possible
> >> and they may profit from turnitin as the "second" (or third) best
> >> alternative
> >>
> >> As a geek, I'm in theory rather a fan of the system and its
> >> technology, and it helps sometimes to investigate individual pieces
> >> which are already looking suspicious. I do have some concerns
> >> regrading its impact on the sector as a whole, and the potential
> >> for further de-skilling of academics, but that's a different story
> >> altogether
> >>
> >>
> >> Burkhard
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Burkhard Schafer
> >> Senior Lecturer
> >> University of Edinburgh
> >> School of Law
> >> Joseph Bell Centre
> >> Old College
> >> Edinburgh
> >> EH8 9YL
> >> [log in to unmask]
> >> 0044-(0)131-6502035 http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/staff/view.asp?ref=69
> >>
> >> Janet Gladstone wrote:
> >>> Colleagues,
> >>>
> >>> My Institution (Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College)is
> >>> hopefully commencing a pilot of Turnitin in the near future. I
> >>> have been asked to find out what the practical experience of other
> >>> Institutions has been with this system and would be most grateful
> >>> for your input.
> >>>
> >>> As well as being interested in your general experiences there are
> >>> also a number of areas where we have specific queries:
> >>>
> >>> Do your students have to give permission for their work to be
> >>> electronically scrutinised?
> >>>
> >>> Does electronic submission cause any issues?
> >>>
> >>> Does using Turnitin increase staff workload significantly? Have
> >>> you had any issues regarding Intellectual Property Rights?
> >>>
> >>> Many thanks for your input on this.
> >>>
> >>> Regards
> >>>
> >>> Janet Gladstone
> >>> Senior Assistant Registrar (Quality Assurance) Buckinghamshire
> >>> Chilterns University College
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
************************************************************************
*
> >>>
> >>> 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
> >>>
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> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
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> >
>
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