Online Plagiarism Tools
I teach at a two-year career college, and we are required to have students submit their research papers via a website called Turnitin. This is supposed to check for plagiarism in each student's paper. However, I've had a lot of bad luck with it, and students' and other teachers' feedback mirrors my own. Do any of you have experience with Turnitin? Do you have any tips on making it more user-friendly and useful in general?
Miranda,
Yes, Turnitin it a competitor to SafeAssign. I have not used Turnitin.
We use SafeAssign. It works through our Blackboard system and I have found it helpful. One thing it does too is that as students submit their work, it searches other students' work against it as well as the Internet.
Therefore, if (for example) students are writing science lab reports based on their experiments (and this happens every semester, every year), a student from this semester can't turn in the same thing his friend turned in last semester.
I have had problems with Turnitin as well. It seems to be inaccurate much of the time and I do not find it to be very user friendly.
I have honestly had more success using a free online webtool - dustball.
Nathan,
Dustball. . .I will have to look at that one. That is the cool thing about these forums. . .we continue to learn from each other. Thanks.
Miranda,
I used Turnitin for the first time this semester. I found it very helpful. It took us about a week to feel comfortable with the system but it was worth it. It saved me a tremendous amount of time.
The students found it helpful to directly view the information that was considered plagiarized. Sometimes it is nice to have an outside source show the students their errors instead of them being critiqued by a professor.
I would walk the students through the submission process during a live chat session. The students may find it easier to use if you demonstrate how to navigate the system.
Cathy
Catherine,
We use SafeAssign. It's not only helpful to catch plagiarism, but also to teach studnts how to reference material properly. If they don't reference properly, it shows up as being plagiarized when it really may not be. . .but just referenced incorrectly or not at all.
Thanks!
Yes, I have also used Turnitin and found that it useful for finding writing assignments that were plagiarized. Also it is a good check and balance, if the students know you are going to check the work for plagarizm then they are less likely to blanket copy from the internet. I could have also done the search of their work manually using Google, but Turnitin makes it a bit more efficient.
Darren,
Thanks for your posting on this forum. Turnitin and SafeAssign are both good packages to help with this. I also use it to show students how information seems plagiarized when they do not write a reference in the proper format.
So, it's a learning tool too. Thanks again.
I find that TURNITIN is one of many possible ways to determine plagiarism. I tend to use Google. If I am concerned that a student has plagiarized or if I am doing a random check for plagiarism, I copy and paste a sentence into the Google search bar. It is amazing how many students plagiarize.
Faryl,
I use SafeAssign which is like TurnItIn to teach students how to properly cite their sources. I give them their paper back as it has been graded by SafeAssign and show then where they have made their mistakes and plagiarism has occurred. It has been helpful. Thanks for your input.
Faryl,
I will use old faithful "Google" when the course first begins. The way that Turnitin is set up at our school, access isn't very user-friendly even though the program is great. If I suspect anything, I start with Google and make a list of assignments to go back to before final grading. That way, I can log in to Turnitin once and go over the suspect assignments all at one time.
Like others, I do a walk-through of Turnitin at the beginning of each term. Otherwise, students "swear" they didn't visit a particular site when, in fact, whatever they did use, plagiarized from the noted site. It gives a good first look look at how important it is to always check your sources and work with sources that are considered scholarly and/or are instructor-approved.
Alaina,
Thank you for the information. It is good to check on the students and their work.
I have used TurnItIn as well and I find it to be a useful tool. But it is just that, a tool a starting point that requires further analysis. I always work with students that have high similarity scores to see if it was a one time issue, they need guidance to use sources apropriately and use their own words, or if it is truly a problem. TurnItIn does not pick up on certain formats such as Excel, so reviewing these types of submissions is more difficult.
I think those students that use the precheck feature are more aware of their submissions and the content that they use if taken directly from another source and make appropriate modifications so that their final submission is cleaner.
Brian,
We use SafeAssign (similar to TurnItIn) and I also find it useful. I use it to show students how to NOT plagiarize and how to reference information appropriately. We can use many tools for a learning experience instead of a final assessment tool. Thanks!
I have used both Turnitin and Safe Assign at different universities and am thankful for the support provided by these softwares to help students understand the importance of proper citation and referencing. However, the effectiveness of a university's plagiarism detection program can only be achieved if all levels of the university understand and actively use these tools, from the top-down. A university that sets standards regarding academic honesty and then upholds those standards through careful monitoring of the use of the tools and proper support for student follow-up is sending a clear message to students about the importance of academic integrity.
Gloria,
Right on. Setting those standards and sticking with them are essential. Nice job.
Most of the time I have enjoyed Turn-it-in. As with any tool, it has limitations. If the student wants to cheat enough, they will probably find a way. Thus, all we can do is use what tools we have to best of their ability and make the student believe that the tools are perfect.
kevin,
I have used Safe Assign (Turn-it-in's competitor) and you're right they all have limitations. And, we do have to be proactive in talking with students about cheating. Thanks for your input.
Popped in here because I feel this is a huge problem with online courses. My students are provided with a plagarism flowchart but having a system that will show them the parts considered to be plagarized is even better.
My classes do not require a whole lot of writing or papers to be turned in and most of the time you can tell by the language used who has and has not put the information into their own words. Great to know the two resources for future reference and for my kids to have as well.
Dawn ,
Dawn ,
Can you share the flowchart? It would be helpful to see what is provided to your students. Thanks.
