There has been much discussion in a number of journals regarding Turnitin.com as a site that should or shouldn't be used to evaluate plagarism potential in papers. Do you believe that a database site such as Turnitin.com should be used in online education programs to evaluate academic dishonesty? Give your detailed opinion and reveal any experiences you may have had with this type of product in previous educational arenas.
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20 comments:
Zach,
Using any third-party tool to hinder dishonesty is a worthwhile endeavor. Using such tools sets a tone and alerts students to the professor's intolerance of academic dishonesty. Of course, more respect should be granted to students in post-graduate programs based on the belief that they are professionals. But even this judgement has flaws since there have been situations when college professors have been dismissed from their positions due to plagiarism or dishonesty in research. Such an event occurred at Kean University in New Jersey where I am an adjunct. An assistant professor of economics and finance was let go after it was discovered she plagiarized significant parts of her dissertation (Here is the link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/education/14professors.html).
In my experience at the high school level, computer science essay or report assignments are generally met with little enthusiasm. Students typically will seek answers at Wikipedia or some form of online resource that borders on advocating plagiarism. It is also evident in the work submitted that they do not paraphrase properly, while some simply resort to modifying only a few words in a copied paragraph. A site such as Turnitin.com would help to instruct students on the negatives of plagiarism. In fact, using such a tool in elementary schools would be beneficial since it is in the formative years that we hope to correct inappropriate behaviors.
Vito,
I completely agree with your comment about using a plagiarism tool in elementary school. Being an elementary teacher myself, I see on numerous occasions papers that seem as if the children copied verbatim from books. Any educational tool that can help elementary teachers would be very beneficial. This is really the beginning of setting a standard for original work.
Matt
Zach,
I believe that Turnitin is a very effective tool for teaching and not for the policing of student's work. We have it available at the college where I teach online and I use it for that purpose - to have students become aware of what intellectual property is.
If a student's work is determined to be plagiarized they will receive an Academic Incident Report. The first time it is a slap on the wrist. The second time they are caught it is grounds for dismissal from the college.
I am seeing that the younger generation does not understand copyright or have a ethical feeling for the use of material that belongs to someone else. It is our duty to educate them and this is the perfect tool.
As an instructor I have at least one case of plagiarism a semester and as an academic advisor and coordinator of courses I deal with several each semester.
Karen,
I definitely agree. I happen to teach second and fourth grade math, science, and social studies and I think that children this age should also be held accountable. While we would not dismiss them from our school, we could definitely set the bar by failing them on assignments and contacting their parents. It shows them that these are serious offenses and will not be tolerated throughout their academic lives.
It is also a good idea to show them how citations work from a young age.
Matt
Matt and Everyone
My daughter is a 4th grade teacher. After reading your post I asked her how she dealt with academic dishonesty if at all. Her answer was that she did inform them at the beginning of the year that they were responsible for what they presented as homework, answers to quizzes, etc. Parents were notified if she found any issues. As far as learning to cite she seemed to think that it may be too much to expect at their age. However when they were to write an report, a reference list would be included.
Sami
Sami,
I too teach 4th grade (math, science, and social studies however) and our language teachers do not teach the children to site. I think that introducing it could not hurt and even require it for a short assignment.
Matt
Sami and Colleagues,
Sorry, in my last post I meant to use the word "cite" instead of "site." Thanks!
I am not familiar with the turnitin.com program. In my opinion, students access this type of website because they view it as an additional resource to become successful in class. I believe that database site such turnitin.com should not be use to evaluate academic dishonesty because we aren’t certain of its validity or reliability. I would rather see a school-sponsored online writing center designed specifically for students; perhaps one of its functions could be to evaluate possible academic dishonesty. By developing an online writing center, the school would be in a better position to help students learn successful writing strategies and would become an integral part of the students’ learning process rather than just focusing on pointing out mistakes. With a writing center at their disposal, students would be less likely to turn to resources like turnitin.com.
Hello everyone,
I recently found an interesting article on plagiarism called "Thwarting the Copycats" in Campus Technology magazine. The article discusses the very issue we are discussing in this blog. Tools to prevent plagiarism are presented as well as approaches for educating students on the negatives of plagiarism.
Here is the link to the articl:
http://campustechnology.com/articles/67074/
Vito
Zac,
I have never used this or any other plagarism program, but this has come up with our school just recently. Even though most of these programs are not designed for younger students, our teachers are stating that these programs are available for us to use. However, our first goal has to be to educate early about plagarism and "stealing" from published works and the Internet. It is so difficult to explain to children (I teach K-8) what they can or cannot take from the Internet. So many times they believe that if it is "out there" then they can use it with no problem. This includes everything from webpages to music.
As much as I hate to say this - we have to educate the teachers as well. Maybe give them a course or 2 or just give them an APA Manual.
Beth
I'm glad to see such a diverse number group respond to this posting. However, I'm not sure we've fleshed out the meat on this subject.
I know that my experience with plagiarism based sites has been as a high school instructor. We used it as an opportunity to teach our students the appropriate way to conduct research, cite sources, and quote articles.
What we found was that although the requirement was in place for our students to learn about proper research methods in the ninth grade, the study of our 12th grade students showed that they felt that the rules "didn't apply to them" because their instructors didn't bother to check for plagiarism. I guess the true reflection of this is those individuals that fly by me on the Interstate going 90-100 miles an hour... it isn't illegal unless I get caught.
Zac
At the college level, plagiarism has surfaced in our program. The program office had subscribed to a plagiarism detection software program, (not Turnitin.com). We had a definite case of plagerism in one of our courses, we ran the paper through the software program with the program stating that no dishonesty had occurred. We found the source paper and compare the student's to it. Exact phrases from the original document were used without citations or references. We reviewed our policies and also the software program to ensure that we did have evidence to move forward with dismissal.
What I learned from this experience was to trust the "expertise" of the faculty member as they knew their subject matter and unveiled the plagiarism prior to any software program, to chose the plagiarism detection software program carefully, and to ensure policies are in place and shared with students regarding academic integrity. Does anyone use another software program other than Turnitin?
Becky
There have already been some comments speaking to this, but I agree that while sites like turnitin.com are valuable resources, they should be used more for teaching tools. If a student is determined to plagiarize for short cut reasons, those students will eventually bubble up to the surface. For a great number of more students, it is important to guide them using these tools. Integrity is still a large part of this.
"I would rather see a school-sponsored online writing center designed specifically for students; "
Fred,
That's a very interesting idea! Which would be great if there was budget for it! In theory though, if there were no monetary restrictions, that sounds like a wonderful idea. I would hope they would take full advantage of the online resources as well.
---Alex
All,
I teach all levels of high school science. A third party tool should be used as a tool to discuss what is plagerism and what is not in all courses. I have found students in my science classes feel it is alright to copy and paste in my class because it is "science" and not "english".
The worst example was a Junior student who copied a 47 slide PowerPoint on a biome from the World Wildlife Federation and tried to present it as hers. She had no idea what she was talking about. When I informed her of her zero and asked her why she thought she could get away with it, her response was "this is science, not english."
Lisa
Matt and Vito,
I agree with your answers on starting plagiarism tool earlier rather than later. I believe that if students are familiar with this tool and consequences of plagiarism, the students will develop a sense of ownership.
Fred
Karen's comment that students do not understand the importance of copyright and the ethics surrounding it is absolutely correct. I've been shocked by the number of students who will copy anything they find on the Internet without even the slightest hestitation.
Zac's comment that people hold a view that something isn't "illegal unless I get caught" is also correct. Moreover, I've been dismayed by students who will somehow shift blame to another entity or person when they do get caught. If only such creativity were used on the actual assignments!
Anyway, we use Turnit.com here at SBU. It works for the most part and does discourage students from copying off each other's work. What it does not discourage is papers that are "written" by stringing together paraphrased comments or direct quotes. In such cases, you can clearly see that the student in question has not synthesized any of the information.
We also have a writing center on campus to assist students in the composition of their papers. I am not aware of the frequency of its usage, so I cannot tell you how successful it is.
Jeff Kimball
Jeff,
We also use Turnitin.com here at Harding to encourage academic integrity. Just this week we had a program for the entire student body talking about academic integrity. At the conclusion, the students were asked to sign an acdemic integrity pledge card. Faculty were asked to uphold the standards of academic integrity and we also signed a pledge card to follow through on this.
This is something we do annually. We are trying to change hearts and attitudes which is a better long term solution to integrity issues.
Rags
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