Original Thoughts and On-Line Learning
We use "Turnitin" at my institution. I instruct my students to always insert original thougths and ideas into their assignments. Frequently, however, my students have elevated similarity scores. These students email me to assure me that they have not "copied" or "plagiarized." I have to inform my students that an elevated score can occur even if all work has been properly cited and sorted. I let them know that the "Turnitin" score is a ratio of original thoughts and ideas as compared to those properly gleaned from outside sources. I encourage them to "re-think" and "re-word" in order to improve their submissions. I find it a bit more difficult to motivate students to think outside of the "box" in the online environment, but I find that increased interaction with the students, coupled with encouragement, leads to improved outcomes.
Michael,
I like that you use Turnitin as a learning tool rather than a tool to punish students. It also allows a dialog to begin and continue. Nice post.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Thank you for sharing Michael… I also incorporate Turnitin in my courses and over the years have found that few students tend to copy/paste some else’s u=ideas. I usually make it clear that copying pasting is not conducive to learning—inappropriate in a learning environment. In addition to messages posted and email sent to the class, I make sure to go through best practices for researching and composing a “unique†response that will yield a low Turnitin score.
Now, for student submitting assignments with a high-Turnitin score, I review the report generated by Turnitin which clearly highlights areas with scores… some student paraphrase the questions, references, these tend to increase the score… of course I don’t consider them focusing on the areas where the student copied some else’s materials. When this occurs I dialog with the student on a one-to-one basis with positive outcomes.
