Turnitin
Definition
Turnitin is a Web-based plagiarism detection service. Instructors can have their students submit written work to this service so it can be checked against Turnitin's databases. The databases include:
- current and archived versions of the publicly available Internet,
- commercial databases of journal articles and periodicals, and
- the company's own database of student work previously submitted to the service.
After student work is checked against the databases Turnitin produces an "Originality Report" that shows matching sequences of words in the submitted assignment, any matching sources, and the percentage of matching words in the report. The most effective way to detect plagiarism with Turnitin is to compare student work against the Turnitin database. This also is the most controversial practice because student work archived in the database becomes the property of Turnitin.
University of Minnesota instructors may access the service in two ways: via a link in WebVista course sites or directly through the Turnitin.com Web site. Access to WebVista is provided by the Office of Information Technology. Access to the Turnitin site is available through a Twin Cities campus-wide site license obtained by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.
Instructors should note that if they have students use Turnitin within WebVista, the students will not have to use Turnitin usernames and passwords, because they have already logged in to WebVista using their University Internet IDs and passwords. Also, Turnitin assignments are added to the WebVista grade book, which may make it easier to administer the course.
Educational Uses
Detecting plagiarism without electronic tools can be time consuming and laborious. Turnitin is easy to use and enables instructors to compare student writing to other writing, both published and unpublished, more quickly and with greater thoroughness. However, using Turnitin is only one among a variety of available strategies for preventing plagiarism. These include the following.
- Make it clear to your students that you will not tolerate plagiarism. Explain relevant University policies, academic standards of integrity, and legal issues to them. Whether you use the tool or not, include language about plagiarism in the syllabus.
- Discuss plagiarism as a moral and ethical issue.
- Critique a plagiarized paper in class and show your students how to avoid plagiarism.
- Create writing assignments that are meaningful. Students are less likely to plagiarize if given "authentic" tasks.
- Create writing assignments that are specifically tailored to the course; change writing assignments each time the course is offered.
- Writing assignments should compel students to focus on process as well as product; use Turnitin in this context. Break up a paper assignment into a series of steps and require students to turn in work related to the final paper as they develop their thoughts.
- Teach students how to correctly paraphrase, quote, and cite sources. Discuss the benefits of citing sources properly and emphasize that command of the skills involved will strengthen their work.
Issues
Instructors should be aware of some issues when they use this type of technology for teaching and learning.
- Student data at the University is governed by FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), which enables students to suppress some or all of their directory information. Some of this information may be revealed when students use digital technology in their courses such as WebVista and Turnitin. Instructors should include a FERPA statement in their syllabi. See the Student Privacy and Teaching with WebVista page for details.
- Because the work students submit remains in a commercial database against which subsequent student work is checked, there is dispute as to whether this practice violates students' intellectual property rights. When instructors create Turnitin assignments in WebVista sites, student papers by default will be submitted to the database, so instructors who don't want this to happen must change the Turnitin settings for each site. See the Turnitin page on the WebVista site for details.
- Instructors should be knowledgeable about University policies related to dealing with plagiarism cases and make their students aware of these policies as well. See the Office for Student Academic Integrity site and the Student Conduct Code page on the Student Judicial Affairs site.
- Students may not understand what plagiarism is, despite carefully written University policies and standard language that appears on syllabi everywhere. Moreover, not all instructors agree on what constitutes plagiarism or policies governing academic integrity. Instructors should develop their understanding of these policies—including definitions of plagiarism—so they know their options should a case arise.
- Students may be accustomed to writing as a product, but may not understand writing as a process. Instructors should guide students through the writing process and make students aware of writing support resources available to them. See the Resources section below.
- The University of Minnesota has licensed only a portion of Turnitin that enables plagiarism detection. Other components of Turnitin Educational Suite such as Peer Review, GradeMark, and GradeBook are not available at this time.
Examples
See the following for examples of how others are using this type of technology to enhance learning.
Success Stories
"Success Stories" about how institutions have used Turnitin "to fight plagiarism and improve reading, writing, and research skills" are available on the Turnitin site.
Resources
The following sources may help you use and teach with this type of technology.
Center for Writing
The center staff offers individualized writing instruction at no charge to University of Minnesota students, and support for faculty members as they integrate writing into their courses.
Copying Student Papers
University of Minnesota Libraries staff members have created Copyright Scenarios, a blog that illustrates the decision-making process for different copyright cases.
FERPA Tutorial
You can learn about the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and how to protect the privacy of education records using this tutorial on the One Stop site.
Office for Student Academic Integrity
Through this Web Site instructors and students can learn more about academic integrity (definitions, policies, procedures) and instructors can find language to include in a syllabus.
Plagiarism
This page on the University's Center for Writing site offers several links to language about plagiarism, examples of plagiarism policies specific to colleges within the University, and advice on how to prevent plagiarism.
QuickStudy
This quick tutorial, created by the University of Minnesota Libraries, shows students how to cite sources in APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and Turabian/Chicago styles. It also includes a tutorial on how to use the Refworks citation manager tool.
RefWorks
Refworks is a service from University of Minnesota Libraries that enables students to create a database of citations and automatically build bibliographies in a required citation style.
Student Judicial Affairs
This Web site offers resources for both instructors and students. The site outlines a process for instructors to follow when they suspect a student has committed plagiarism and provides the University of Minnesota Regents Policy on student conduct, downloadable as a portable document file (PDF).
Training Resources
This Web site offers training videos and manuals for using Turnitin products. Only the training guides that cover plagiarism detection are relevant to the University faculty and staff. Turnitin often refers to its plagiarism detection software as an "Originality Report."
Research
The following research literature has been published about the educational uses of this type of technology.
Bolkan J. V. "Avoid the Plague: Tips and Tricks for Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism." Learning & Leading with Technology 33, no. 6 (March 2006): 10–13.
Bolkan makes a case for using a wide range of tools to prevent plagiarism. Among those advocated in the article are setting a tone for upholding academic honesty, creating specific assignments for students, and requiring that students show intermediary steps toward a completed work.
The Center for Academic Integrity. "CAI Research: Don McCabe." Durham, North Carolina: The Center for Academic Integrity, Duke University. http://www.academicintegrity.org/cai_research.asp.
This article summarizes the June 2005 results of a study that examined cheating and plagiarism in 60 colleges and involved about 50,000 students. The researchers found that more than 70 percent of students admit to some cheating. The study also looked at the impact of honor codes on cheating and found that students on campuses that have honor codes are less likely to cheat.
Charbonneau, Leo. "The Cheat Checker." University Affairs (April 2004). http://www.universityaffairs.ca/issues/2004/apr/print/cheat.html.
Charbonneau reports on a widely discussed case related to copyright issues that arose at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Student Jesse Rosenfeld challenged an instructor's policy that required students to submit their work to Turnitin; any student who refused would receive a zero for the assignment. The article covers the details of the case as well as arguments in favor and against the use of Turnitin. The university committee that later evaluated the case allowed grading of the student's assignments and did not require electronic submission.
Foster, Andrea. "Plagiarism-Detection Tool Creates Legal Quandry." The Chronicle of Higher Education 48 (May 17, 2002): A37–38. http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i36/36a03701.htm.
Foster examines legal ramifications of using Turnitin plagiarism detection software in colleges. The article identifies specific issues with the use of the Turnitin database such as potential student copyright and FERPA violations. The article cites the work of Dan L. Burk, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who argues that the Turnitin database service violates student ownership of copyright.
Hunt, Russell. "Four Reasons to be Happy about Internet Plagiarism." Teaching Perspectives. St. Thomas University (December 2002). http://www.stthomasu.ca/~hunt/4reasons.htm.
Hunt argues that there are benefits to the current trends of increasing plagiarism. He invites instructors to view plagiarism in the electronic age as an opportunity to rethink educational practices we currently take for granted, including the research paper and traditional grading practices. Hunt argues that instructors now have the opportunity to reconsider "just how the intellectual enterprise of scholarship and research really works" and that instructors should respond to plagiarism by making a commitment to promoting significant learning.
Mahon, Robert. "Try the Guillotine." The Clearing House 79 (2006): 271–3.
In this provocative article Mahon advocates a zero-tolerance attitude about plagiarism and the adoption of a French system of justice that assumes "guilty until proven innocent." While many instructors may not be able to adopt this approach due to constraints of university policies, this article does offer much to ponder. The article could lead to further thinking about the relationship between teaching styles and approaches to dealing with plagiarism, and offers some strategies for preventing plagiarism as well as dealing with cases should they arise.
Martin, David. "Plagiarism and Technology: A Tool for Coping with Plagiarism." Journal of Education for Business 80, no. 3 (2005): 149–152.
Martin researched how effective the use of the Turnitin service is in reducing plagiarism. The study involved analyzing graduate student papers for plagiarism over a five-semester time period. Cases of plagiarism declined in later semesters which is attributed to the effectiveness of the software.
