Using the Web based TurnitinUK Service

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Using the Web based TurnitinUK Service

• Jim Sharp
• Hotline - plagiarism_at_qmu.ac.uk

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Overview

• The extent of plagiarism in the UK
• QMU approach avoiding the arms war
• Introduction to the TurnitinUK service
• Role of the tutor (Instructor)
• Interpreting originality reports
• Using with students

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Latest, latest.

• 17 March 2006 - One in three students cheats,
  survey finds
• One-third of students admit to cheating at
  university by copying ideas from books or the
  internet, according to the results of a survey
  published today in The Times Higher Education
  Supplement. The statistics come to light only a
  day after Oxford University warned that
  plagiarism by its students could threaten the
  value of its degrees.
• The survey, based on 1,022 undergraduates at 119
  universities and colleges, found that one in six
  students admitted they copied work from friends
  while 10 per cent said they looked for essays
  online.
• Male students were more likely to copy work
  from their friends (21 per cent) than female
  students (14 per cent), the study revealed.
• Nearly half of male students (45 per cent) said
  they copied from their friends for group
  assignments, compared with 29 per cent of female
  students, the researchers discovered. ?

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Student View?
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Essay Banks (Cheat Sites)
Essays can be available for as little as 4.99

• www.oxbridgewriters.com
• www.ukessays.com (notorious!)
• http//www.academicdb.com/
• www.lawteacher.net/essaybank.html
• www.DissertationsAndAssignments.com
• www.essayrelief.co.uk
• www.EssayAcademy.com
• www.nonplagiarizedessays.co.uk

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Exercise your experience
A recent survey of both students and staff at
Northumbria University ascertained the
proportions of students who believed certain
forms of cheating to be common (Dordoy,
2002). From your experience and intuition
complete the supplied pro-forma with your best
guess at these proportions (the percentages need
not add up to 100) Then check your answers with
the next slide.
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Plagiarism in the UK
A recent survey of both students and staff at
Northumbria University ascertained the
proportions of both staff and students who
believed certain forms of cheating to be common
(Dordoy, 2002).
Copying a few paragraphs from a book/internet
un-cited
Copying most of an assignment from some source
Downloading a whole essay from a cheat site on
the internet
Buying an essay from a ghost-writing service
Cheating in an exam
Making up data for a project or lab class
Working with another student on work that is
meant to be individual
Passing off others ideas/images/designs as your
own
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The QMU Approach - 1

• One of the key elements of our approach is to
  avoid a them and us situation caused by a
  perception of being policed
• It is tempting to believe that a problem
  exacerbated by ICT (eg the Internet) can be
  solved by ICT (eg the TurnitinUK service)
• Cole Kiss (2000) describe a situation in
  American Universities where cheaters are using
  devices such as silent pagers and tiny video
  cameras to gain marks which in turn requires
  lecturers to deploy forensic linguistics to
  detect plagiarism
• They describe this as a dispiriting arms race
  and is certainly something we at QMU want to
  avoid.

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The QMU Approach - 2

• Using workshops where appropriate, we are
  introducing what Carroll Appleton (2001)
  describe as a balanced institutional response
  including
• Creating a climate that discourages plagiarism
• Teaching students what plagiarism is
• Teaching students paraphrasing/referencing skills
  to avoid plagiarism
• Encouraging tutors to design out opportunities
  for plagiarism
• Introducing the judicious use of electronic aids
  ie TurnitinUK

(Note that these steps should not be confused
with the need for a well defined disciplinary
procedure for when serious plagiarism is
detected. This procedure should be clearly
separated from the assessment process.) ?
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TurnitinUK An introduction

• QMU is a registered user of the TurnitinUK
  service available at www.submit.ac.uk
• This web-based service compares submitted
  assignments against a database of over 1000
  million web pages, Electronic databases such as
  Emerald, Gale InfoTrac, CrossRef, ProQuest and
  thousands of previously submitted student
  assignments from UK universities.
• It then produces an originality report
  identifying sections of matching text and
  providing links to the original sources.
• This service is free to all QMU tutors and
  students.
• The intention is that students will routinely
  submit their assignments to the service and use
  the originality reports generated as re-assurance
  that they have referenced appropriately.

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TurnitinUK 3 types of user

• Administrators Susi Peacock and Jim Sharp
• will create Instructor (QMU Tutor) accounts
  on-demand and also operate as a Plagiarism
  hot-line to deal with queries via
  plagiarism_at_qmu.ac.uk
• Note we do not know and cannot retrieve passwords
  (but tutors can do this for themselves)
• Instructors
• QMU tutors who wish their students to use the
  TurnitinUK service
• Able to set up classes (usually one per module)
  with one or more assignment areas. Optionally
  each assignment can be accompanied by one or more
  revision areas
• Students
• Enrol themselves onto classes set up by their
  tutor
• Then submit assignments via the appropriate class
  to get an originality report
• Use the originality report to refine their
  assignment referencing
• Can re-submit a number of times depending on how
  many revision areas the QMU Instructor tutor
  has set up.?

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TurnitinUK the process

• Tutor contacts administrator to be set up as an
  Instructor

• Administrator creates instructor account using
  tutors email address. The TurnitinUK service
  emails a starter password directly to the tutor.

• Tutor logs in to the new account at
  www.submit.ac.uk and adds a class, creating a
  class name and a class enrolment password.
  The system creates a unique class id number. To
  this class the Tutor adds assignment headings

• Tutor communicates the class id number and the
  class enrolment password to the relevant
  students (the tutor can also enrol the students
  manually)

• Each student accesses www.submit.ac.uk and
  creates an account (user profile) using a
  convenient email address and a suitable password

• After creating the account, the student enrols
  onto the class created by the tutor, using the
  class id and password supplied in step 4

• When ready, the student submits work under the
  relevant assignment heading. The TurnitinUK
  service then matches the work against the
  database, generating an originality report

• Student checks originality report and makes any
  necessary changes to the work. If the tutor has
  provided revision areas, the student can
  re-submit as in step 7.

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Tutor / Student Interaction
Tutor creates monitors
TurnitinUK Service
Class A
Assignment 1
Revision 1a
Revision 1b
Assignment 2
Class B
Student submits work receives reports?
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Tutor (Instructor) logging on
Using any browser, access www.submit.ac.uk -

• Tutor types in full email address followed by the
  password sent via TurnitinUK (note that only the
  tutor can change or retrieve his/her password)
• and clicks on Sign in button

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Instructor adding a class

• The tutor account page will appear

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Instructor adding an assignment

• Note the number next to the class name is the
  class id, which students will need along with the
  class enrolment password to enrol in the class.
  The tutor should note this number so that it can
  be distributed to students along with the class
  enrolment password.

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Instructor adding assignment dates
First occurrence of assignment only
If tutor wants students to submit revisions then
additional copies of the assignment need to be
created with this set to revision assignment
(from assignment home page)
due date deadline for assignment
post date release date for marks if using
Grademark otherwise set to one day after due date
Only used if using Grademark (marking online)
Note on first use tutor must click on (more
options) to see additional options (IMPORTANT!)
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Instructor adding assignment options
Normally no unless using GradeMark
Always yes
Always set to this
Always yes
Always yes, submission after the due date will
be flagged as late
When complete, click on the submit button
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ProQuest

• ProQuest offers instant access to a vast range of
  content current and historical periodicals
  newspapers dissertations out-of-print books and
  scholarly information.
• Their archive includes more than 5.5 billion
  pages of information, spanning 500 years of
  scholarship, in formats that range from print to
  microform and digital.  Subject coverage extends
  across business and economics science,
  technology and medicine general reference
  humanities and social sciences.

Back to TiiUK Intro
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Gale InfoTrac

• Thomson Gale (www.gale.com) is a business arm of
  The Thomson Corporation.
• It is a world leader in e-research and
  educational publishing for libraries, schools and
  businesses.
• Best known for its accurate and authoritative
  reference content as well as its intelligent
  organisation of full-text magazine and newspaper
  articles, the company creates and maintains more
  than 600 databases that are published online, in
  print, as eBooks and in microform.

Back to TiiUK Intro
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Assignment Inbox
Once the assignment dates and options have been
submitted, the assignment inbox is created as
above. Tutors and student submit by clicking on
the title in the name column.
If there are changes to be made to the dates then
the edit icon gives access to these.
Usually, tutors allow more than one opportunity
for students to submit work so they can improve
their referencing and see if their changes have
worked. In this case the next step is to create
what are called revisions. The process is
started by clicking on the new assignment
button.
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Instructor adding a revision area (1)
Start as for a new assignment but select
revision assignment here -
Click submit button
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Instructor adding a revision area (2)
Choose the correct one from the assignments
listed here
Change due and post dates to the same as the
assignment (not done automatically)
Always set to this
Always set to yes
When complete, click on the submit button
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Instructor assignment after revision

• After adding a revision the assignment page for
  the Study IT Skills class looks like this to
  the tutor

• A tutor can add a further revision if required
  by clicking again on the new assignment button.

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Enrolling students

• Before students can access a TurnitinUK class
  they have to have an account and be enrolled on
  to the class. This can be done
• By the tutor, student by student
• By the tutor by preparing an batch file of all
  students off line
• By the student on receipt of the class id number
  and password from the tutor
• For more details see the Tutor Guide

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Student view assignment inbox
A student sees a slightly different view of the
In-box
The student would submit their first attempt
using the green arrow button in line 1, then if
necessary submit a second attempt in Line 1a
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Typical Tutor Inbox Entry
Title of Student submission
Tutor can submit an assessment at any time by
clicking on the submit paper button
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(No Transcript)
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Please remember

• Academic judgement is essential when interpreting
  the report
• scores can be misleading
• try including/excluding reference list/quotations
• always check matches for referencing
• look out for plagiarism rings
• take care with other class data situations
• The TurnitinUK service is one tool in the QMU
  plagiarism toolbox

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Turnitin and Students

• Book a computing workshop if necessary
• Invite students to bring a trial submission
• Issue Student Guide document Publicise class id
  and password
• Take students through account creation using
  Student presentation
• Supervise their first submissions
• Assist in interpreting reports

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Other Class Data Sources

• The matching process includes all previous
  student submissions to the Service
• This includes those to another tutors class area
• If a match is found across areas, the service
  will not display the matched text because of the
  TurnitinUK privacy policy
• Instead the submitter is advised to seek
  permission from TurnitinUK to view the text
• TurnitinUK will act as a middleperson
• If this happens you and that tutor might want to
  consider the implications

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Signposts to Resources

• Hotline - plagiarism_at_qmu.ac.uk
• Website http//mcs.qmu.ac.uk/plagiarism
• Introduction to originality reports
• Examples of originality reports
• This presentation online
• Tutor Quick Start Guide
• Student Quick Start Guide
• List of Cheat sites
• Access to referencing guides via Library website
• Access to relevant QMU regulations
• Hints on assessment design (Leeds University)
• Study Skills website
• www.qmu.ac.uk/studyskills

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Bibliography

• Franklyn-Stokes,A. and Newstead,S. (1995),
  Undergraduate cheating who does what and why?
  Studies in Higher Education, 20(2), 159-172.
• Newstead, S., Franklyn-Stokes, A. and Armstead,
  P. (1996), Individual differences in student
  cheating, Journal of Educational Psychology, 88
  (2), 229-241.
• Dordoy, A. (2002), Cheating and Plagiarism
  Staff and Student Perceptions at Northumbria,
  University of Northumbria Conference on
  Plagiarism on-line http//www.jiscpas.ac.uk/imag
  es/bin/AD.doc
• Carroll, J. and Appleton, J. (2001), Plagiarism
  A Good Practice Guide, Oxford Brookes University
  Guide Series on-line http//www.jiscpas.ac.uk/ap
  ppage.cgi?USERPAGE6202
• Cole, S. and Kiss, E. (2000), What can we do
  about student cheating?, About Campus, May-June,
  5-12.
• Other reading Plagiarism and Poor Academic
  Practice A Threat to the Extension of
  e-Learning in Higher Education? Mike Hart, King
  Alfreds University College, Winchester, UK, and
  Tim Friesner, University College Chichester, UK
  on-line http//www.ejel.org/volume-2/vol2-issue1
  /issue1-art25.htm