Category Archives: Turnitin

Turnitin Now Accepts More File Types

Succeed, Turnitin,

The plagiarism detection/awareness-raising service Turnitin will now accept more file types as student submissions. As well as the previously-available, text-based submission types (Word documents, PDF files, text files), Turnitin will now accept PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, images, HTML code, even audio and video.

Whist Turnitin will not be able to run a text-for-text plagiarism check on, say, a submitted audio file, it will store that file associated with that student, and allow staff to make use of the GradeMark or PeerMark features in Turnitin to assess the submission.

More details on the new file types that can be accepted, plus some examples of how Turnitin and GradeMark can be used to assess submissions are available on this ‘Grade Anything’ page on the Turnitin web site:

http://www.turnitin.com/en_us/features/grade-anything

If you want to find out more, there’s a live Turnitin web cast you can join at 6pm (GMT) on Thursday, 10th April 2014. You need to sign up to attend, and the sign up form is here:

http://pages.turnitin.com/WC_140410_register.html

eLearning Forum Presentations, Plagiarism Quiz and Turnitin Question

e-Learning Forum, Electronic Marking, Listen Again, Plagiarism, Succeed, Turnitin, , , , ,

This blog posting follows up from the eLearning Forum on Thursday, 23rd January 2014.

Presentations

These are now available to view in PDF format:

Plagiarism Quiz

The Plagiarism Quiz which Sarah Grayston has created is now available to view in the ‘My Learning’ course space in Succeed, to which all staff have access. You will find it in the ‘Assessments’ area of this course. If anyone would like a copy of this assessment added to their own module in Succeed then please contact Sarah sarah.grayston@stir.ac.uk to arrange this.

Turnitin Question

To clarify after the discussion relating to Turnitin: if the settings of a Turnitin Assignment are such that a student paper is not submitted to the repository, then Turnitin will still compare the submitted paper against student papers, web and electronic journal items in its database and generate an Originality Report. The only difference will be that Turnitin will not compare papers submitted under this assignment with other papers submitted to this same assignment. Therefore, plagiarism taking place within the module (one student copying off another) would not be spotted as the papers would not be in the repository.

Listen Again

Where staff have agreed to share their talks, we are working on making the presentations from the session available on the Listen Again service. We hope to have these ready for early next week and will do a further blog posting when they are available.

Turnitin – insightful perspectives on education

Turnitin

Each webcast is a half-hour and offers a fresh take on hot topics from experts in and around education.

January 16
The Future of Wikipedia in Education
Jake Orlowitz, Editor at Wikipedia

This webcast will explore how Wikipedia can be responsibly integrated into university courses for thinking about research, digital literacy, and critical thinking about the reliability of information.

January 30
How Instructors Respond to Plagiarism: Survey Findings
Jason Chu, Education Director at Turnitin

How do instructors respond when they encounter plagiarism and how do these responses change if plagiarism continues?

February 5
Responding to Student Plagiarism as an Educational Opportunity
Gerald Nelms, Academic Director for Developmental Writing at Wright State University

Investigating cases of student plagiarism must involve more than simply textual evidence of shared discourse and use or misuse of citation conventions.

February 13
Literacy is Fundamental: Leveraging Critical Reading to Improve Student Writing
Lynn Lampert, California State University Northridge

How has the immediacy, ready access to, and wealth of information online impacted student literacy?

February 27
Ghostbusting: Getting the Ghostwriter Out of Your Class
Dave Tomar, Author of “The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat.”

How can instructors effectively identify bought papers and guide students away from using these services?

Guide to Setting up Turnitin Assignments in Succeed

Succeed, Turnitin,

With the Spring Semester now not too far away and new module spaces for Succeed modules will be being created in the next few weeks, thoughts turn towards assignment submission. If your students need to use Turnitin to submit their assignments or to check their assignments prior to making a submission then you’ll need to set up a Turnitin Assignment area in Succeed. This guide will help you do this:

http://www.stir.ac.uk/media/schools/is/documents/succeeddocuments/turnitinuk.pdf

Plagiarism Quiz

Succeed, Turnitin, ,

A plagiarism quiz has been developed with the Stirling Management School. This includes seven questions covering topics presented in The Little Book of Plagiarism and The Little Book of Academic Misconduct. Students are allowed to view the books whilst answering the questions and the quiz can be set to allow multiple attempts with no time limit. If a student answers incorrectly they are given feedback that directs them to where in the little book they will find the answer.

The trial in the Stirling Management School involved advising students that they would not be able to submit their assignment in Turnitin unless they achieved at least 80% in the quiz. This served two purposes, ensuring students were aware of the guidelines regarding plagiarism and academic misconduct and also keeping a record of students who had been informed about these topics.

Student representative:

“I think it was a good idea, far better than just a list of the university’s policy on plagiarism with a tick box to accept the conditions.

It actually got students thinking about what plagiarism really is. There were a few students that were stressing out about it, but again, these were the people who left it till 10 minutes before the deadline to submit it.

Some of the questions were a bit vague, but then again it’s an important issue that students need to be aware of.”

The questions are now being reviewed to make them a little clearer and improve the feedback given for each response.

If you are interested in :

  • Using the quiz
  • Adapting the quiz for your own needs
  • Creating something similar
  • Releasing content to students based on test results

…then speak to your e-learning representative: http://www.stir.ac.uk/is/staff/about/teams/aldt.

Coming Soon to Turnitin: Submit and Evaluate PowerPoint

Turnitin

We want to tell you about some improvements that will be coming very soon to Turnitin. Students and instructors will be able to submit PowerPoint files (.pptx, .ppt, .ppsx, and .pps) via their normal submission process. The PowerPoint file will be converted to a static PDF and the text and images on the slides will be visible and available for feedback in the Document Viewer and Turnitin for iPad® app; however any dynamic elements such as slide animations, transitions, presenter notes, and audio/video will not be available.

When this feature is fully implemented in coming weeks, we will post an announcement to let you know about the new ability to submit and evaluate PowerPoint.

Turnitin Student Success Week webcasts

Turnitin

Turnitin held a ‘Student Success Week’ between 28th October and 1st November, with various experts delivering webcasts on topics such as:

  • Using Web-based Technology for Interactive, Formative Feedback in Online Learning
  • Organic Feedback: Growing through Consistent Adjustments

The webcasts are quite focussed towards the US education system, but you may still pick up some interesting ideas and discussions on assessments and feedback. Access the webcasts here:
http://turnitin.com/en_us/resources/student-success-week