Thank you to those Turnitin instructors who answered our survey and helped as to motivate the need for more resources to support the use of Turnitin at Oxford University. OUCS has secured funding for a post for a learning technologist (18 month fixed term), to focus on feedback and assessment, and in particular the use of Turnitin and its integration with WebLearn.
Extract from job description:
Main job purpose:
The Learning Technologist will work alongside VLE developers and other learning technologists in the WebLearn team for the purpose of Supporting Institutional Practice for feedback and Assessment (SIPA). In particular you will investigate, promote and support the use of the external Turnitin plagiarism detection and prevention service. Turnitin is integrated into the Sakai Assignments tool (version 1). You will need to test and evaluate the Assignments 2 tool and recommend system improvements to in-house developers. Reporting to the senior learning technologist, you will take a key role in communication and training for academic staff in terms of feedback and assessment. You will work closely with academic colleagues to identify models of good practice in assessment and feedback (to and from students), and support them and their students in promoting academic writing and study skills. You will investigate current institutional processes and policy in terms of academic writing and plagiarism prevention and make suitable recommendations. With a strong grounding in pedagogy (in particular feedback, assessment and plagiarism prevention) and some experience with learning technology (in particular VLEs), you will be expected to become (if not already) an expert in the use of Turnitin (originality checking, and piloting GradeMark and PeerMark according to requirements at Oxford University).
After obtaining permission to recruit, the position will be advertised externally via the usual channels.
