Turnitin An educative tool for identifying and preventing plagiarism

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Turnitin An educative tool for identifying and
preventing plagiarism

• E. Marcia Johnson, WCELfest,
• The University of Waikato, December 2008

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Overview

• Background to the study
• The Turnitin (Tii) trial
• Description of the research project
• Data collected and preliminary findings
• Broad implications of using electronic plagiarism
  detection software
• Final thoughts

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Background

• Text-based assessment items are widely used
  across tertiary environments, and dissertations,
  research reports, and theses are usually
  presented in text form.
• Much has been published internationally in recent
  years about high levels of plagiarism in such
  text-based assessments.
• It is now generally accepted that the Internet
  and other electronic resources provide the
  majority of plagiarised text-based material.
• Thus, many universities have encouraged staff to
  become increasingly active in detecting cases of
  plagiarism and making formal complaints of
  misconduct through student disciplinary channels.

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Background

• During 2008, the Student Discipline Committee,
  through an ITS-funded project, examined the
  possibility of using an electronic plagiarism
  detection tool (Turnitin).
• I was invited to be project manager of a
  cross-campus, cross-disciplinary team, the
  purpose of which was
• To decide whether or not to trial Turnitin
  broadly across campus
• To determine how Turnitin could be accessed by
  staff and students (assuming a positive response
  to the previous point)
• To trial Turnitin in a range of papers, from a
  variety of Schools to see how it functioned
• To develop strategies, training, and
  documentation for assisting staff who opted to
  trial the Turnitin software
• To make recommendations to the University about a
  possible roll-out of Turnitin to any staff who
  wanted to use it.

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Background

• We were dedicated to developing a holistic
  approach to dealing with plagiarism issues, not
  to implementing an electronic plagiarism
  detection tool as a punitive device.
• The software tool was considered as just one way
  to deal with the plagiarism, but clearly issues
  such as assessment practice, students academic
  literacy skills, and students life-skills were
  also important.
• At the beginning of the project did not assume
  that we would go ahead with a cross-campus
  Turnitin trial.
• We spent almost six months determining how
  Turnitin could be implemented in the most robust
  fashion and how we would support both staff and
  students.

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The Turnitin Trial

• We decided to implement Turnitin as a plug-in to
  Moodle.
• This provided a relatively straightforward way
  for students, from any location, to submit
  assessed work and for lecturers to obtain
  Turnitin reports.
• Specialised programming of the plug-in,
  documentation, staff training, specialised text
  for paper outlines, etc. all had to be completed
  within about a 5-week window.
• Volunteer lecturers had to be chosen to trial
  Turnitin and to participate in the research
  study.
• The trial ran throughout B semester 2008.

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Research Project

• We obtained agreement from 10 participants in the
  trial to participate in the research study.
• Participants were interviewed three times during
  the semester, using a semi-structured interview
  form.
• Data were collected using a voice recorder and
  note-taking. Each interview lasted from 40-60
  minutes.
• Interview 1 (early in the term) - to determine
  staff knowledge of, compliance with, and feelings
  about the Universitys plagiarism policy. Why
  were they in the trial?
• Interview 2 (mid-term) - to determine staff
  perceptions of setting up Turnitin and initial
  student responses.
• Interview 3 (after term completion) - to
  summarize staff perceptions of Turnitin use.

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Interview 1 - Knowledge of Plagiarism Policies
and Practice at the University

• Why had the participant volunteered to take part
  in the Tii trial?
• Were participants familiar with the Universitys
  policies and regulations regarding plagiarism?
• Did participants know what options were available
  to them if they detected plagiarism in a
  students assignment?
• How did the participants see Tii fitting within
  the Universitys general approach to plagiarism?
• How easy was it to implement Tii within the
  Moodle environment?

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Interview 1 - Knowledge of Plagiarism Policies
and Practice at the University

• Why had the participants volunteered?
• Six of the participants wanted to use Tii,
  particularly in first year papers, to catch
  students so that they could teach them how to
  properly reference and paraphrase some
  participants were very clear that they had no
  intention of using Tii as a punitive tool.
• Three of the participants wanted to use Tii
  because they felt that cheating was an equity
  issue - it wasnt fair to the students who had
  done the work themselves. They felt it would save
  them time.
• One participant was curious and just wanted to
  see how Tii worked.
• Educative tool
• Tool to preserve academic honesty / time-saver

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Interview 1 - Knowledge of Plagiarism Policies
and Practice at the University

• Familiarity with policy
• 4 staff were very familiar with the University
  policy on plagiarism
• 3 staff were familiar with policy
• 3 staff were only mildly familiar with policy
• Understanding of options if plagiarism detected
• 5 staff felt that there were many options,
  including up-skilling of students (educative)
• 5 staff felt that there were no options the
  students work needed to be sent directly to the
  Student Discipline Committee (equity)
• Some of the latter staff stated that consistency
  in dealing with students was essential.

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Interview 1 - Knowledge of Plagiarism Policies
and Practice at the University

• Ease of use of Tii within the Moodle environment
• All staff, even those who had never used Moodle
  before in their teaching, found the technical
  side easy.
• Training materials were helpful and clear
  workshops were helpful and clear.
• Technology was not an inhibitor (at least not for
  getting started).

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Interview 2 - Reflections on the Paper in Progress

• Have Tii reports highlighted that some assignment
  types are more vulnerable than others to
  plagiarism?
• How would they change their approach to
  assessment?
• What types of feedback have students given to the
  use of Tii?
• Have there been any problems interpreting the Tii
  reports?
• Have there been any stressful moments using Tii?

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Interview 2 - Reflections on the Paper in Progress

• Assessment issues
• All participants understand that the essay as
  an assessment type is vulnerable to plagiarism
  but its essential at tertiary level.
• However, there were some interesting comments
  about what to do.
• Conduct a greater proportion of assessment tasks
  under test conditions.
• Restrict the number of resources to which a
  student may refer in the assignment (and name
  them). There was varied opinion about this it
  could solve one problem (plagiarism) but create
  another (limit opportunities to read, think, and
  synthesize information).
• Include more smaller assignments, practical
  exercises.
• Provide better academic skills training and use
  Turnitin.

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Interview 2 - Reflections on the Paper in Progress

• Student feedback / stressful moments / reports
• Staff had few stressful moments, but students had
  many.
• A number of students had trouble figuring out how
  to upload assignments, the correct format for
  files, how to generate and attach assignment
  receipts, how to upload an edited version once an
  assignment had been deemed final (for example).
  
• There was no negative student feedback about the
  use of Tii.
• There was some anxious feedback about the fact
  that Tii would be used.
• For the most part the interpretation of reports
  was straight-forward as theyre colour-coded.
  Lecturers understood that they also needed to go
  back and check the original assignments based on
  the reports.

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Interview 3 - Reflections on Using Turnitin

• What worked well / what features could be
  improved for an overall roll-out?
• What are the main resourcing issues?
• What was the overall reaction of students?

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Interview 3 - Reflections on Using Turnitin

• What worked well / improvements needed
• Comments so far have focused on technical aspects
  of the Tii plug-in to Moodle.
• Basically these are the types of issues that one
  wants to identify and correct in a trial and
  before a wide-scale roll-out.
• Well-documented frequently asked questions
  would be helpful.
• An online discussion forum where staff could pose
  questions and share experiences would be helpful.
• Information-sharing workshops (this is what
  happened in my paper) would be very useful.
• Consistency, training, documentation, and
  one-on-one support.

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Interview 3 - Reflections on Using Turnitin

• Student reaction
• Students reacted well and staff received no
  complaints.
• The Student Union rep was very keen to implement
  Tii.
• Resourcing issues
• Staff training / student training are essential
• Support for staff and students when they have
  problems using Tii
• Software issues re the plug-in must be solved by
  specialist programming for which there will be a
  cost
• Excellent and readily available documentation
  needed
• Systems needed to standardize how reports are
  interpreted and what actions are appropriate.

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Implications of a Tii Roll-out

• The general feeling was that Tii needs to be
  available to all academics, but on a voluntary
  basis.
• Better training and support materials need to be
  available, particularly for students.
• Regular and intensive academic skills preparation
  must be available to students, and particularly
  at first year. This includes, for example, how to
  paraphrase and reference, and also what the
  consequences of plagiarism are.
• Holistic, coordinated support across campus is an
  absolute requirement. This includes, for example,
  the Student Discipline Committee, Student
  Learning Support, the Waikato Centre for
  E-Learning, the Library, and liaison with
  lecturers in the different Schools.

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Some Final Thoughts about Tii

• Students must have ample opportunities to read
  and think deeply at tertiary level but they also
  need to acquire the academic and computer
  literacy skills to be able to do so.
• Electronic plagiarism detection software is a
  good tool to assist in the development of
  students academic skills competence, but it
  needs to be used early and backed up with
  learning support when problems are identified.
• No trial participant viewed Tii as a punitive
  tool, but it was viewed as a tool to ensure
  equity and academic honesty.
• Better staff awareness around plagiarism
  regulations and the range of options available
  when students are found to have plagiarized is
  essential.

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• Questions and Comments?

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The University of Waikato Private Bag
3105 Hamilton, New Zealand 0800
WAIKATO www.waikato.ac.nz
Dr E. Marcia Johnson Associate Director, Waikato
Pathways College Student Learning
Support marcia_at_waikato.ac.nz