[ 1 ] © 2010 iParadigms, LLC All Rights Reserved. Gill Rowell, Academic Advisor, PlagiarismAdvice.org 9 June, Embedding Turnitin in policy and practice

[ 2 ]Confidential Aims of today’s session How things have moved on since Present a snapshot of policy and practice in UK institutions with examples of good practice. Case study from one UK institution.

[ 3 ]Confidential Quick and dirty survey Short 10 question survey sent out via closed TurnitinUK-usergroup JISCmail list. Around 60 UK institutions represented on list. Total number of institutions (HE and FE) in UK using Turnitin is around 300. Only 12 institutions responded! Response rate therefore 20% of institutions on list, around 4% of total UK Turnitin population.

[ 4 ]Confidential General view on plagiarism

[ 5 ]Confidential How have we moved on? 47% increase in total submissions to Turnitin from 2008/9 to 2010/1 academic year. Anecdotal evidence suggests Turnitin more embedded in policy and procedure. Turnitin increasingly used as e-submission and e-marking tool.

[ 6 ]Confidential Policy and procedure 82% of respondents are aware of regulations at their institution and feel confident in their implementation. For 50% of respondents their institutional regulations provide specific guidance on use of Turnitin. Martin King (Royal Holloway, University of London) in survey of users in November 2010 (n=57) found 60% of those responding had policy in place to guide use of Turnitin.(King, 2010)

[ 7 ]Confidential “Policy works”... “In developing the policy, make explicit the strategies that are used to help identify possible instances of unacceptable academic practice, including the role of text-matching tools... It is helpful to have agreed guidelines on identifying unacceptable academic practice and to establish a policy for using a tool, such as Turnitin, that specifies why and how it is to be used by staff and by students.” (Higher Education Academy, 2011)

[ 8 ]Confidential Why? Clarity in case processing. Prevent ad hoc use. Avoid isolated unsupported use of Turnitin. Present a consistent and structured approach to students. Ensure approach to using Originality Report is rigorous.

[ 9 ]Confidential Many and varied (Caselli, 2006)

[ 10 ]Confidential UK models of use

[ 11 ]Confidential Some good practice pointers Emphasis on student submission rather than submission by tutors. No use of “profiling” model ie where work is submitted from particular groups of students. Formative models widely used, formative demonstration model and formative supported. What’s surprising... No one using sampling approach. What’s good...

[ 12 ]Confidential Formative vs summative use

[ 13 ]Confidential In practice Whichever approach you choose ensure clear guidance is provided to both staff and students: –State aims of Turnitin use (formative and/or summative). –Present pros and cons where there is a choice! –When use is mandatory. –When and where discretion in use is permitted. –Any other specific conditions of use.

[ 14 ]Confidential Turnitin Originality Report “An Originality report should never be advanced as the sole reason for suspecting that a piece of work is plagiarised, because the judgement as to whether work is plagiarised must always be an academic judgement.” (University of East London) Only 3 institutions in survey stated they provide specific guidance on interpreting the Originality Report to students. Originality Report is widely used as evidence for case processing. − Encouragingly in majority of cases respondents stated that this must be supported by academic judgement (referred to as “markers’ view” or “argument from academic”). Very useful video for students on interpreting the Originality Report by Oxford Brookes.interpreting the Originality Report

[ 15 ]Confidential A thorny question... (Lieser, 2008)

[ 16 ]Confidential Setting thresholds 83% of respondents said they didn’t set thresholds of acceptability. “Carefully consider the potential impact of any matching text, for instance 20% of matching text in a report may have more impact than 40% in another. For instance, consider the impact of a 20% match from a final year dissertation of 15,000 words as compared with the same percentage from a level 1 1,500 word essay. Also reflect on the implications of impact in terms of the work in hand, ie a relatively small percentage of matching text may have a huge impact on the work itself especially if it is from a key area of the work such as the discussion or findings section where critical concepts are discussed. Again, many institutions will take into account the potential impact of any plagiarised text, in addition to the quantifiable measure when allocating a penalty.” (Rowell, 2009)

[ 17 ]Confidential Other 82% have Academic Conduct Officer (or similar) at their institution. 83% offer training in use of Turnitin, but this is not a requirement.

[ 18 ]Confidential Summary Approaches to using Turnitin are as many and varied as the student population itself. Transparency and clarity are paramount whatever your approach. If use is embedded is it now time to think about review?

[ 19 ]Confidential Theory into practice... Simon Starr, Canterbury Christ Church University

[ 20 ]Confidential References Caselli, A. (2006), Living colours. Flickr [Online] Available at: (Accessed: 23 May 2011). The Higher Education Academy (2011), Policy works [Online] Available at: (Accessed:23 May 2011). King, M. (2010) Turnitin: Student access to Originality Reports [Online]. Available at: Originality-Reports.pdf (Accessed: 23 May 2011). Originality-Reports.pdf Lieser, T. (2008), Thorns on its side # 1. Flickr [Online] Available at: (Accessed: 19 May 2011). Oxfordbrookes (2011), Oxford Brookes University: How to interpret Turnitin reports. Available at: (Accessed: 19 May 2011). Policy on the use of Turntin within UEL (2008), University of East London [Online]. Available at: (Accessed: 19 May 2011). Rowell, G. (2009) Interpreting the TurnitinUK Originality Report (internal report). Zanzibar (2006) Clear waters. Flickr [Online] Available at: (Accessed: 19 May 2011).