Preventing Plagiarism Sept 4 w narration

Preventing Plagiarism: Tips and Turnitin.com : 

Preventing Plagiarism: Tips and Turnitin.com Maha Bali, MEd Senior Instructional Technologist, Center for Learning and Teaching

Anecdote : 

Anecdote Helen Keller accused of plagiarism

Workshop Outline : 

Workshop Outline Discussion of some real plagiarism cases at AUC Sharing personal stories Discussion of creating non-plagiarizable assignments or reducing plagiarism in your class Introducing the Turnitin Originality report Analyzing a sample report Actions to take if you find plagiarism Turnitin.com hands-on

Case 1: What might have happened? : 

Case 1: What might have happened? A student taking a philosophy class writes a paper and Turnitin.com shows around 85% match with a paper written by another student a couple of years ago. Worse, the ideas in the paper are so unique that it is impossible to believe that two people would even think the same way. Both students swear they have never met each other They may have both bought the paper off the same paper mill

Case 2: What can the professor do? : 

Case 2: What can the professor do? A professor of Rhetoric reads a student’s paper and feels it is not written in his “voice” and feels that the particular “voice” in that paper is familiar. The paper turns up no plagiarism on Turnitin.com Face the student; ask him student to discuss the paper or write a similar one in front of him Check the “author” in the preferences of the word document – in this case, it turned up the name of a previous student!!! Apparently, the other student helped write the paper (or wrote it)

Case 3: What can the professor do? : 

Case 3: What can the professor do? Student who is very quiet in class writes an excellent paper written in very good English – the instructor feels she is plagiarizing – how can he make sure without accusing the student? Ask the student to come in and discuss their paper in person Ask the student to write a shorter similar paper live

Case 4: What should the professor do? : 

Case 4: What should the professor do? When teaching a graduate class, a student paper turns up 50% plagiarized. What should the professor do? Grad students do not get introduced to plagiarism in RHET Raise awareness early in the semester Raise awareness throughout the program (avoid thesis-level unintentional plagiarism)

Case 5: What could have happened? : 

Case 5: What could have happened? A student writes a paragraph in the exam that is copied word-for-word from the textbook. She swears she did not have the book or any notes with her in the exam and that she did not copy from anyone It turns out she had memorized what was in the textbook – she actually recited some text and the page numbers in a face-to-face meeting!

Share a story : 

Share a story Of plagiarism you have heard of as a teacher or student

Create non-plagiarizable assignments Reduce plagiarism in your class : 

Create non-plagiarizable assignments Reduce plagiarism in your class Small-group discussion then full-group discussion

More tips in the handout : 

More tips in the handout Some of the tips in the following slides come from there…

Some Tips : 

Some Tips Emphasize on syllabus and first week of class Model good practice in teaching, handouts, etc. Understand why students plagiarize Create meaningful assignments that are difficult to plagiarize Specific rather than general Requires unique research Focus on process not just product

Some Tips – cont’d : 

Some Tips – cont’d Allow drafts and in-class writing Include discussion/presentation of papers Give feedback Have students post all written assignments and drafts to Turnitin.com

Introducing Turnitin.com : 

Introducing Turnitin.com

Analyze a sample report (handout) : 

Analyze a sample report (handout) Small-group then full-group discussion

Tips for Analyzing Turnitin Reports : 

Tips for Analyzing Turnitin Reports Exclude quoted text? Remember that incorrectly punctuated quotes & indented paragraphs will not be excluded Exclude bibliography? Does not always work well Exclude insignificant matches? New feature Copied from another university? Both students probably copied from the same external source (or paper mill)

What Turnitin Misses : 

What Turnitin Misses Any exact copying from a source it does not search (i.e. non-digital, some periodicals, student papers not on Turnitin) Well-paraphrased, not referenced Getting help writing the paper And of course: was it intentional?

Taking Action at AUC : 

Taking Action at AUC Visit the academic integrity website (link in handout) Code Guidelines, disciplinary procedures Forms, handouts Academic Integrity Council Email, call or come and talk to us at CLT Talk to department head

Using Turnitin.com : 

Using Turnitin.com Hands-on session

Slide 25: 

Give students class ID and enrollment password NOT class name They will submit their own assignments

Slide 28: 

Recommended

Follow-up on this workshop : 

Follow-up on this workshop CLT website Turnitin page includes: Link to Academic Integrity website (in handout) Link to guidelines for instructors (in handout) Link to guidelines for students (in handout) Some frequently asked questions and answers (in progress)

Links for the Handout : 

Links for the Handout AUC Academic Integrity website Best practices: http://www.aucegypt.edu/academics/resources/acadintegrity/Faculty/Documents/BestPracticesFaculty.pdf Disciplinary procedures: http://www.aucegypt.edu/academics/resources/acadintegrity/Disciplinary/Pages/default.aspx Turnitin.com CLT’s page on Turnitin: http://www.aucegypt.edu/academics/llt/clt/TeachingLearningTechnology/Pages/TurnitincomforFaculty.aspx Turnitin: www.turnitin.com Faculty guidelines: http://www.turnitin.com/resources/documentation/turnitin/training/en_us/qs_instructor_en_us.pdf Student guidelines: http://www.turnitin.com/resources/documentation/turnitin/training/en_us/qs_student_en_us.pdf