Students consult a variety of sources in their academic writing, such as academic sites, social sites and electronic encyclopaedias (e.g. wikipedia). In today’s electronic age, some unscrupulous students even use ‘cheat’ sites that sell custom essays. The Turnitin providers created a rubric to evaluate the credibility of online sites, and then conducted a study using the rubric to evaluate 197 sources. The resulting interactive website is very informative and useful (see more details below.)
From the blog at turnitin.com – “Explore the ratings for top student sources”:
“Turnitin created a new interactive website, “Ratings for Top Student Sources,” which ranks the most popular online sources found in student papers.
Turnitin partnered with a team of educators who scored the online sources most frequently used by secondary and higher education students in six categories: academic, social media, paper mills, encyclopedias, news/portals, and shopping sites. The educators used the Source Educational Evaluation Rubric (SEER) to rate 197 sources on the level of their authority, educational value, intent, originality, and quality. Visitors to the interactive site can set their viewing preferences using combinations of these attributes.”
