Teach with Turnitin
Turnitin is most often used as a final step in assignment submission to check written assessment against the database and identify similarities that may require further investigation. However, as per the Student Academic Integrity Procedure, where possible, students should have the opportunity to check and improve their work prior to submission using the Turnitin tools, and the default settings for the two tools have been configured to support the development of academic skills.
Develop and scaffold academic practice
Learning to write academically is a complex process, involving a wide range of new and interdependent skills. Students new to study (or returning after a long break) may lack many of these skills, and will not become fluent in the language of their discipline overnight. It is therefore important to view and use Turnitin as a tool to assist students in identifying problems in their writing skillset, rather than as a spy to inform them when they do something wrong.
Before requiring students to submit work through Turnitin, ensure you have scaffolded and supported them in development of skills such as effective reading (identifying key ideas), note taking (in their own words), and recognising that it is important to have an understanding of a topic, and something original to say, before trying to express the idea in writing.
Turnitin can then be used to highlight where there is an over-reliance on original wording and structure, and follow up instruction can assist students to consider how to express the ideas more effectively.
Key message: Integrate Turnitin into academic skill development. |
---|
Similarity is not plagiarism
Turnitin produces a similarity report, highlighting where a student’s submission contains text that is similar to text in another document within Turnitin’s database or online. Text may be similar in two documents for many reasons, only one of which is plagiarism. Other explanations might relate to use of terms and phrasing common within the discipline, use of templates or required content (such as particular headings), quotations and references, as well as coincidence. All matches should be reviewed in context. Additionally, if a student submission matches work by another Monash student, the submission with the higher score is not necessarily the one containing copied content.
For high similarity scores, you might want to compare the text more closely in terms of how the work was put together. Use the report to determine whether a student has engaged in plagiarism by verifying the sources used, where text matching has occurred, and whether it may be due to poor academic practice.
Key message: There are many reasons why a match may be indicated. The similarity score must be considered in context and interpreted accordingly. |
---|
Introducing students to Turnitin
When adding a Moodle assignment, the default settings allow for drafting processes before final submission. Similarly, the Turnitin Draft Submission also supports drafting and review. Supporting student understanding of the drafting process and Similarity Reports is a key part of supporting assessment and academic integrity practice.
- Explain the importance of Academic Integrity. Not only are there consequences for breaches, but academic integrity is the code of practice that Monash Scholars adhere to, upholding honesty and valuing the work of others. There are different resources available in the Communicate about Academic Integrity section to support this messaging.
- Introduce the submission plugin. Ensure students understand that they have an opportunity to check their assessment task against similarity databases generally or prior to submission, and why they might do this. The Turnitin Integration will allow students to upload and receive a report within 15 minutes for the first three times and then once every 24 hours after.
- Explain the benefit of drafting. Allowing students to upload drafts and check similarity reports is an important part of learning about academic integrity. Interpreting similarity reports can help students in identifying weaknesses in their understanding of academic practice. Many issues with linguistic expression or poor paraphrasing will be picked up by the system..
- Explain that similarity is not plagiarism. Share a standard similarity report with students and explain what the different parts mean. For more information, see Interpret a similarity report. Help them to identify where the reports are indicating poor practice, and what strategies could be employed to improve adherence to conventions (for example, are there references missing by accident, or poor paraphrasing?).
- Be specific about what this looks like in your unit and your tasks. Use past examples or common pitfalls and misconceptions to help students understand exactly what you expect from them and how they should respond to different flags in a report.
- Link students to additional support. The Student Academic Success team and the library are able to support students with improving referencing and other academic practices.