Submitting assignments to Turnitin
The Turnitin system requires the submission of electronic versions of student assignments, either by teachers or directly by students. It supports a number of different models of use:
- The most comprehensive model is to require all students to submit their assignments directly to Turnitin, where the teacher can later scan the Originality Reports and download the assignments for marking, using the information in the Originality Report as one input into the marking decision.
- Another model is for teachers to submit the assignments of all members of a class before marking them. For this to be feasible, student work must be submitted electronically.
- A third model is for teachers to submit only assignments that have aroused their suspicions. We would advise against the general use of this last strategy on equity grounds. It is therefore preferable for assignments from all members of a class to be submitted.
A plagiarism-checking service such as Turnitin is not a complete solution to the problem of plagiarism. Apart from anything else, Turnitin cannot detect plagiarism from sources such as books that are not included in digital libraries or journals that are not included in the two full text databases, and that means most journals and books. The service merely identifies very similar text, including text which is correctly cited.
Turnitin should only be used if three key components are already in place:
- Students must clearly understand what constitutes plagiarism in the area of study. This requires not only a clear definition of plagiarism (beyond "You must not copy other people's work") but also examples of acceptable and unacceptable practice. Acceptable practice can be subtly different between disciplines. The Student Learning Unit's website provides useful links and information for students around the issue of plagiarism and writing critically.
- Students must be provided with a clear statement of the consequences of plagiarism being detected in an assignment. Sanctions should reflect different degrees of plagiarism. For Victoria University's Policy on Academic Honesty and Plagiarism by Staff and Students visit http://wcf.vu.edu.au/LegalPolicy/PDF/POA040915000.PDF
- Students must be notified that their assignments may be checked for plagiarism and provide a suitable acknowledgement (see Legal issues for the text of a declaration).
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