TurnItIn UK User Group

September 22, 2011General, Online marking, Turnitin Standard

Manchester, 21/9/11

This was attended by 91 users, many from UK HE, but including schools, colleges and exam boards. A straw poll indicated a roughly 50:50 split between those institutions using Originality Checking as a formative tool for the iterative refinement of coursework (mainly new universities and colleges) and those using it as a summative deterrent/policing tool (older universities and exam boards).

In a review of 45 million submissions to TurnItIn’s Originality Checking software:

  • 54% of matches came from academic websites
  • 14% of matches came from social networking websites
  • 6% came from essay banks
  • 13% came from Wikipedia (largest single source)

Future developments to TurnItIn tools

Late 2011:

• Better tools for administrators including password recovery

• e-Rater added to GradeMark to provide spelling and grammar checking.

Spring 2012:

• Ability to grant extensions to students submitting to a TurnItIn Assignment

• Removal of maximum term lengths so archives can exceed 5 years old

• Expanded view of GradeMark rubric so the whole marking grid can be viewed.

• Adding audio and/or video files to feedback in GradeMark

Winter 2012:

• Ability to use iPads or Android tablets for grading

• Ability to translate documents to check for plagiarism from foreign sources.

Later:

• Offline marking

The developers for both the Moodle and BlackBoard integrations are based in Newcastle, not the USA, so we have rapid access to them.

Several users (inc. Lboro) requested a separate account for testing the Moodle 2 integration. This can be set up for us when needed.

Oxford Brookes produced a video aimed at students, so they could interpret their Originality Reports. It may be of interest to tutors – we do not normally allow students to see ORs. It’s on YouTube at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yYf8AihndI

A summary report from Royal Holloway looks at policies relating to students seeing Originality Reports. It is available at:www.rhul.ac.uk/registry/educational-development/e-learning/services/turnitin/Survey-Student-Access-to-Originality-Reports.pdf

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