Here are the responses I received in reference to Turnitin.com. Thanks
to each of you.
We are a college prep high school and since a lot of colleges use this
service, two of our teachers investigated. They got permission to do a
trial subscription and were very enthused about it. We now use it for
most of our student papers. Teachers get the reports and go over them.
It does still need teacher corroboration. For example, a student used a
phrase that Turnitin said was close to one in Sports Illustrated. Since
the paper was for a chemistry class, it didn't seem likely that the
student would have used SI for any reference. The teacher, of course,
understood that and took that in consideration when evaluating the
paper.
Toni Koontz
Librarian
St.Charles Preparatory School
Columbus,Ohio
akoontz@cdeducation.org
Our school uses turnitin.com, but we use it as a teaching tool rather
than as a "gotcha" or punitive tool. We use it as part of the writing
process to teach proper parenthetical citations. When the students have
their final rough draft ready, they are required to submit their own
paper to turnitin. They then get their results back with any possible
plagiarism or incorrect citation issues. The students then have the
opportunity to go over the results and fix any
quoting/paraphrasing/parenthetical citation mistakes that have been
found. After they have corrected any issues, the final paper gets handed
in to the teacher. Turnitin also sends a copy of the results for each
student to that student's teacher (organized by class), so the teacher
can look at the initial results and compare to the final paper. We have
found that it has worked very well in helping students think about what
should be cited and why. It has also put more emphasis in the students'
minds on original writing. We are very happy with turnitin the way that
we use it.
Amy Short
Library Media Specialist
Westford Academy
30 Patten Road
Westford, MA 01886
(978) 692-5570 x2143
<mailto:ashort@westford.mec.edu> ashort@westford.mec.edu
don't know of any cons --- they have been sued- but won all cases I
believe... Some students sued them --- as when a paper is submitted --
the content belongs to turnitin.com. we require all papers in the school
to be submitted to them -- has stopped any dishonesty totally. we love
them
Dr. Allan O'Grady Cuseo (Brother Donogh Allan, MGC)
Bishop Kearney High School Library
125 Kings Highway South
Rochester, New York 14617
585-342 - 4000 x231
585-342 - 4694 (FAX)
acuseo@bkhs.org
We've just purchased it for this year, so far we've found out that we
don't have the updated software that enables us to scan a paper (OCR
software). The students would have to submit their papers on a disk or
through email.
Nancy Carlson
Farmington High School
Farmington, CT 06032
carlsonn@fpsct.org
I'm a big fan of Turnitin.com. I'm a former English teacher (now my 2nd
year in the LMC), and I used to spend HOURS searching Google for proof
that work was plagiarized. I advocated for Turnitin.com the first year
as a librarian.
I'd say the biggest problem is getting the teachers to use it. The first
year it was a pretty easy sell, but as the year went on (and now this
year) I don't think as many are using it as should be. A lot of them
seem to have the "what I don't know won't hurt me" attitude. I've been
trying to send out motivational e-mails (facts and stats about cheating
to light a little fire under them). Each semester I offer training or
help before or after school or their prep hours to set up accounts.
Attached is a sheet one of our teachers made up to help students and
teachers with the sign-up and submitting process. It's really all pretty
easy, I think. Good luck with your decision!
Kristy Sandel, librarian
Mason High School
Mason, MI 48854
ksandel@mason.k12.mi.us
We started using Turnitin last January and it is working well for us.
Different teachers use it in different ways. The science teacher
required his students to print out the results & include that with the
final copy of the research paper for his class. One of the English
teacher had the students send in their rough draft & print out the
results. It counted as a small % of their grade--then they could make
corrections and cite things that they hadn't for the final draft. I was
surprised at how well the students liked it--it gave them incentive to
be honest & reinforced their honesty. I wish all the teachers would use
it--but they don't. It takes a little bit of time to set a class up, but
once it is done, they can access it on their own if the teacher wants it
done that way.
Linda Hill, Librarian
Meridian High School
After being begged by my English department, I subscribed to this
service. After an entire year, not one teacher had used this service!!!
A couple of them used it for a single paper that had been turned in--it
was a terrible waste of money for me. This is in a school of over 800
students 9-12.
Turnitin requires that students wilingly relinquish their copyright.
Court cases have already been won by students in the US. The company is
making money out of other people's copyright - main reason why Yale (or
Harvard - can't remember which) where the software was developed by a
post grad student, won't touch it. You cannot force students to hand
over their copyright, neither can anyone else submit their assignments
without permission.
Article about the first court case
<http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/21/ctv.plagiarism/>
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/21/ctv.plagiarism/
Out university bought it before looking into the legal ramifications and
now have bit of a lemon on their hands! Students are now being
encouraged to submit to Turnitin as part of their quality assurance
process, but I don't think it has been very successful. I have attached
an article I wrote for ACCESS earlier this year - it recommends a
proactive approach to the problem rather than a reactive/punitive one.
EVE2 is a Web plagiarism detector available at
<http://www.canexus.com/eve/index.shtml>
http://www.canexus.com/eve/index.shtml
Not very expensive and the printout is also a real deterrent. :) BC
Convenor for the Transforming Information and Learning Conference
<http://www.chs.ecu.edu.au/TILC> http://www.chs.ecu.edu.au/TILC
Barbara Combes, Lecturer
School of Computer and Information Science
Edith Cowan University, Perth Western Australia
Ph: (08) 9370 6072
Email: b.combes@ecu.edu.au
"Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that
of an ignorant nation." Walter Cronkite
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