Information for Faculty
Turnitin Interface Update
On August 7, 2008 Turnitin updated their user interface. Although most functionality remains the same, the user interface has been completely revised. Read more....
Resources for learning to use the new interface:
For user documentation and training videos about the new user interface, please
visit:
http://www.turnitin.com/static/new_tii_training.html
For more information regarding what's new, please visit:
http://www.turnitin.com/static/new_tii_features.html
For a list of frequently asked questions and answers regarding the new Turnitin
user interface please visit:
http://www.turnitin.com/static/new_tii_faq.html
Two online overview sessions of the new interface have been created specifically for Penn State users and are being offered by Turnitin.com through their WebEx Web conferencing system. No registration is required. Read more...
Academic Integrity Remains a Primary Focus at Penn State
Read
more about Penn State's efforts to educate students on the value of honesty
and personal integrity.....
Turnitin and ANGEL Drop Boxes
Zipping and uploading an ANGEL drop box is just one of the submission options available in Turnitin. IST has developed the LitterBox tool to improve the drop box uploading process, and the tool is now available. Read more about Drop Boxes...
How Turnitin.com works
Instructors can submit electronic versions of written works to Turnitin.com themselves, or they can have students submit their own papers, which in turn produces an "originality report." This report shows the instructor the results of Turnitin.com's comparison of the written work to content on the Web, to Turnitin.com's database of student writing, and to some databases of common full-text journals.
If a student submits a paper, the teacher can allow the student to view the report; if the instructor makes the submission, the report is not available to the student.
Using Turnitin.com in a course
If you would like students to upload their own papers to Turnitin, you can download and distribute this handout with brief step-by-step instructions.
Using Turnitin.com most effectively requires some preparation and planning on the part of the instructor, and is most successful when used to teach students correct uses of sources rather than being used surreptitiously for surveillance of students' work.
Revising your syllabus
Reacquaint yourself with Penn State's Academic Integrity code, reacquaint yourself with your college's and/or campus' Academic Integrity policy statement, and define for yourself what plagiarism is and how it relates to the assignments students will turn in for your course.
Senate Policy 43-00 (Syllabus) (http://www.psu.edu/ufs/policies/43-00.html) requires instructors to provide a statement on academic integrity within a syllabus. Your college or department may have a statement they want instructors to use. Links to some statements recommended by different colleges and campuses are available at http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/links.html#policy.
Additional academic integrity policy resources
The purpose of the academic integrity statement is both to educate your students and to protect yourself should incidents arise later in the semester. A written statement is one way to ensure that students are made aware of Penn State policy so they cannot claim ignorance later. In addition, some students are naive about plagiarism, associating it merely with copying and not with the use of ideas which they have paraphrased without proper citation. Statements should be tailored to meet the specific circumstances of your course, so that students can avoid unintentional plagiarism.
We recommend that you update your syllabus statement on academic integrity to include information about Turnitin.com and how it will be used in your class. After updating your syllabus, you may want to devote some class time to discussing how you will use Turnitin.com (for example, identify assignments where Turnitin.com will be used). It will be helpful to students if you can state in advance how you will use the results of the originality report provided by Turnitin.com.
An additional resource to consider using to address the issue of academic integrity with students is the iStudy for Success! (http://istudy.psu.edu) instructional module on academic integrity, plagiarism, and copyright (http://istudy.psu.edu/modules.html). This module works within ANGEL and has been reviewed by academic integrity committees at various colleges and campus locations as well as by Judicial Affairs. The module is appropriate for use in all courses throughout the Penn State community.
Information to consider including in your syllabus
The Turnitin plagiarism prevention tool can be used as a teaching tool as well as for just checking suspicious work for plagiarism. As a teaching tool, Turnitin can be used to help students recognize citation errors and "unintentional" plagiarism -- and fix their mistakes before submitting the final version of their work. As a detection tool, it allows instructors to view possible cases of plagiarism and make informed evaluations.
Should any students have a problem with having their work submitted to Turnitin, their concerns should be addressed by the instructor on an individual basis.
Whether you use Turnitin as a detection tool, a teaching tool, or both, it's a good idea to place a statement in your syllabus to notify students of your intent to use Turnitin.com in your course and how the results will be used in determining grades. Following is a suggested statement:
In this course we will be using a tool, Turnitin.com, to confirm that you have used sources accurately in your papers. If you have any questions about how to cite your sources, please review the materials available at http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/cyberplagstudent.html or http://istudy.psu.edu/modules.html#Integrity. Students are responsible for ensuring that their work is consistent with Penn State's expectations about academic integrity. Additional information about the Turnitin.com plagiarism prevention tool is available at http://turnitin.com and at http://its.psu.edu/turnitin/Students.html.
More information about creating an effective syllabus is available at the Teaching and Learning with Technology Web site: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/syllabus/
A good, general resource is the Academic Integrity Web site at York University: http://www.yorku.ca/academicintegrity/
Other suggestions for paragraphs to include in a syllabus can be found at UMass Amherst: http://www.library.umass.edu/tools/plagiarism/
Getting started with Turnitin.com
Training materials and quickstart guides for Turnitin.com are located at http://turnitin.com/static/training.html. Penn State is licensing only the Plagiarism Prevention module which includes Originality Reports.
Contact us at Turnitin@psu.edu for information needed to set up your account.
Next, create an account, set up your classes and test
the Turnitin tool by submitting some sample works to practice interpreting
the originality reports.
The Turnitin.com Web site has information on plagiarism and additional resources about using their plagiarism prevention tool that you may find helpful. The plagiarism prevention tool is the only resource at Turnitin.com that Penn State is licensing.
Interpreting the results from Turnitin
When a paper is evaluated, Turnitin.com provides an originality report which tells you if text in the evaluated project or paper is similar to or identical to text Turnitin.com has in its database. Faculty must still evaluate the quality of the report independently and determine if the parts identified by Turnitin.com that are similar or identical, are actually plagiarized text. This is because all matches are shown, even those students cited properly. As a result, faculty must critique the report they receive, use their best judgment and follow University policy before approaching a student about possible plagiarism.
Similarly, even if a paper is reported as "original" by Turnitin.com, that is not necessarily airtight evidence that the paper is original. Instead, it may mean that the student plagiarized from a work that is not available in the Turnitin.com database. If a faculty member has a concern, and strongly suspects plagiarism, he/she should continue to investigate through other resources usually available at the library. No database is entirely comprehensive and many sources are not digitally available. Therefore, plagiarism can occur and be undetectable by services such as Turnitin.com.
Another point to remember when evaluating an originality report is that Turnitin only lists the first occurrence of a match. This may or may not match the source citation information the student has provided. If the material the student has used is found in many places on the Web, the student's citation may be correct even though it doesn't match the source found by Turnitin.
If you believe a student has committed plagiarism or another infraction of the University’s Code of Conduct related to Academic Dishonesty, you should schedule a time to meet with the student, review the information that has lead you to believe that a violated occurred, and provide the student with the opportunity to respond to the allegation. If after this meeting you still believe the student is responsible, follow the guidelines that have been established for reporting an Academic Integrity violation which are outlined in G-9 Academic Integrity. More information on the procedures can be found at http://www.psu.edu/dept/oue/aappm/G-9.html and/or through your College/Campus Academic Integrity Committee.
Issues to consider when deciding to use Turnitin.com
The use of plagiarism detection tools like Turnitin.com is somewhat controversial. Some of the issues include infringement on student copyright and student privacy as well as the free, uncompensated use of student work to generate a profit for a private business.
An interesting article addressing these issues is:
http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i36/36a03701.htm