Use Turnitin – Help Improve Student Writing

Center for Distance EducationInstructional Design Services

Dr. Prasanthi Pallapu

Objectives• Turnitin– Why?– Uses– What?

• Associate Turnitin to Dropbox• View Turnitin ‘Similarity Index’• Use of ‘Draft Turnitin Dropbox’

Why?

• Plagiarism Spectrum– 10 types of unoriginal workhttp://turnitin.com/assets/en_us/media/plagiarism_spectrum.php

Uses• Students– to improve writing skills– for better learning• encourages to cite resources

• Educators– to help and encourage students– use it as a learning tool (not for penalizing)– for informed evaluation of student work

Turnitin

• Cloud-based service• Is integrated into our learning management

system• Does NOT detect plagiarism.• Finds text that matches other sources in the

Turnitin databases – regardless of whether or not the text was properly

cited.

Sources

• Compares students’ submissions to find matching text

• Three vast databases of content from three primary sources1. The current and archived Web2. Student papers3. Content Partnerships

Sources1. The current and archived Web– Searches over 45 billion web pages

2. Student papers– 50% of plagiarism comes from other student’s work– Compares over 337 million papers

3. Content Partnerships– Over 130 million articles– Library databases, text-book publishers, digital

reference collections etc. http://turnitin.com/en_us/features/originalitycheck/content

Search Targets• student paper repository - works previously

submitted in classes and assignments on Turnitin

• institution paper repository - a repository of student papers for the institution

• current and archived internet - a repository of archived and live publicly available internet pages

http://turnitin.com/en_us/training/instructor-training/creating-assignments

Search Targets• periodicals, journals, & publications - third

party periodical, journal, and publication content including many major professional journals, periodicals, and business publications

http://turnitin.com/en_us/training/instructor-training/creating-assignments

Repository Options

• standard paper repository• institution paper repository• no repository– Ideal to use for ‘Draft Turnitin Dropbox’

Originality Report /Similarity Index

http://turnitin.com/en_us/training/student-training/about-originalitycheck

File Types & Size

• File Types– http://turnitin.com/en_us/training/instructor-trai

ning/submitting-papers• File Size– Not to exceed 20 MB

Submissions in Dropbox

Demonstration• Associate Turnitin to Dropbox– http://uiu.edu/distance/resources/documents/As

sociateTurnitin.pdf• View Turnitin ‘Similarity Index’– http://uiu.edu/distance/resources/Turnitin%20Ac

cess.pdf• Use of Draft Turnitin Dropbox– Advanced Options

• No Repository option

– http://turnitin.com/en_us/training/instructor-training/creating-assignments

Demonstration

Demonstration

Demonstration

Resources

• Handouts– Dropbox: Turnitin– Dropbox: Turnitin Access

• http://uiu.edu/distance/resources/facultyplstutorials.html

Resources on Turnitin.com

• Instructor Training– http://

turnitin.com/en_us/training/instructor-training• Students Questions– https://turnitin.com/static/resources/documentati

on/turnitin/sales/Answers_to_Questions_Students_Ask.pdf

Upper Iowa UniversityUpper Iowa University www.uiu.eduCDE Professional Development Schedule

CDE Professional Development Schedule

Upper Iowa UniversityUpper Iowa University www.uiu.eduCenter for Distance Education

Education Services cdefaculty@uiu.edu Invitations to teach and course assignments

eLearning Team elearning@uiu.edu Faculty training courses, academic course access, students enrollments

Instructional Design Services idservices@uiu.edu Online course design and development.

UIU CDE Resources Website

UIU CDE Faculty Tutorials Website