There is currently an intermittent issue with the document viewer and this is preventing Originality and GradeMark reports being viewed.
This was reported to the US team at 11am and is no being investiagated and further updates will be sent as we have them.
If you are experiencing any issues or staff require updates please report it via e-mail tiisupport@turnitin.com
UPDATE: This issue has now been resolved.
FREE! Online Training Sessions
Tom and James from Support host sessions every Wednesday at 1400 GMT
to review the basic functionality of Turnitin. Please sign up for
your online training session using the link below. Sessions have
been designed for Turnitin administrators and instructors and are not
suitable for students and there are no limits to the number of
attendees to these FREE webinars so feel free to share this with your
colleagues.
Wednesday 25th January 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/007da95c33
Wednesday 1st February 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/b52f9a74e5
Wednesday 15th February 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/13b5668ab8
Wednesday 22nd February 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/24cfc7b815
Wednesday 29th February 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/711eba8d58
Plagiarism Advice training sessions take place on Wednesdays at 1530
GMT and are delivered by Anne on a range of topics in relation to
plagiarism and ensuring the integrity of student work. Our current
schedule of sessions is as follows: To sign up for a session click
on the links below.
Getting the message across to students
25th January 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/75e6427fe2
How and why students plagiarise
1st February 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/b226e36d6d
International students and plagiarism
15th February 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/f5bc8f5efd
Identifying and tackling plagiarism
22nd February 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/730feedf6e
Designing plagiarism out of coursework
29th February 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/a8f1cb4c43
Best practice for dealing with academic misconduct
7th March 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/1dae5698bf
Establishing a robust plagiarism policy
14th March 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/870e168c69
Exercising academic judgement in the Originality Report
21st March 2012 –
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?iParadigmsEurope/622b46d80b/1ef23070a1/b4135aa906
Please note these sessions are for teaching and support staff only.
Turnitin US have produced an infographic, based on a white paper which takes a look into the web sources and writing practices of secondary and higher education students in the United States.
The full white paper, Plagiarism and the Web: A Comparison of Internet Sources for Secondary and Higher Education Students, can be viewed here.
Source: Turnitin newsletter, TURNITIN RE:MARKS, November 2011
The WebLearn team is investigating, promoting and supporting the use of the external Turnitin plagiarism detection and prevention service and allied products GradeMark (online marking and annotations) and PeerMark (student peer marking and assessment). Turnitin is integrated into the WebLearn Assignments tool (version 1) and system improvements will be recommended for the new Assignments2 tool in response to user feedback.
We will investigate current institutional processes and policy in terms of academic writing and plagiarism prevention and make recommendations in collaboration with the Education Committee, the Proctors’ office, the Oxford Learning Institute and the Bodleian libraries.
New training courses for academic staff will be developed, focusing on assessment tools for formative testing, interpreting Turnitin originality reports, tackling plagiarism in the internet age, and student training in information skills and academic writing practice. We will work closely with academic colleagues to identify models of good practice in assessment and feedback (to and from students), and support staff and students in promoting academic writing and study skills.
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.
FEATURED ARTICLES
Plagiarism and the Web: Myths and Realities
We recently conducted a study that examined which Internet sites students used in their written work. We classified 110 million content matches in 40 million student papers that were submitted to Turnitin over a ten-month period. We identified some interesting truths about where our students turn to for research and sources:
Plagiarism is going social
One-third of matched content is from social networks, content sharing or question-and-answer sites where users contribute and share content. 15 percent of content matches come from cheat sites Paper mills and cheat sites are the third most popular category for matched content.
Legitimate educational sites are more popular than cheat sites One-quarter of matched material is from legitimate educational web sites, almost double the number that comes from paper mills or cheat sites.
Wikipedia is the most popular site for matched content Wikipedia remains the most popular single source for student-matched content on the Web, comprising seven percent of matches. The other most popular sites, in order, are answers.yahoo.com, answers.com, slideshare.net, oppapers.com, scribd.com, coursehero.com, and medlibrary.org.
Educators with the knowledge and tools can address the growing problem Educators who employ the proper tools and technologies can significantly mitigate plagiarism. For example, institutions with widespread adoption of Turnitin see a reduction in unoriginal content of 30 to 35 percent in the first year. By the fourth year, many institutions see levels of unoriginality fall by up to 70 percent.
Download the White Paper, “Plagiarism and the Web: Myths and Realities,” for more details and recommendations on how this impacts you as an educator:
http://pages.turnitin.com/PlagiarismandtheWebSEC.html
*****
Product Updates
We’re always working to improve Turnitin—every month we release several features and updates. Some of them are major changes that impact your use, but most are behind the scenes optimization or subtle changes to the interface. Here are some of the changes we recently released:
Active Highlight Emphasis
Hovering on a mark causes associated highlights to become darker.
Expanded Mark Footprint
Marks containing a lot of text are wider and longer to allow for more of the comment to be read without scrolling.
Up and Down Arrow Scrolling
Using the up and down arrows will cause the paper in the document viewer to scroll up and down.
PeerMark Inbox Show and Hide All Details All the rows in the PeerMark assignment inbox can be expanded or collapsed at the click of a button.
PeerMark Scale Response Export
Export a Microsoft Excel file containing Scale Question response information for a PeerMark assignment.
Visit our Product Updates blog to watch a video explaining and demonstrating these changes:
http://community.turnitin.com/members/blog_view.asp?id=638717&post=125394
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IN THE NEWS
NBC: Green Education
Two Milwaukee teens make the case for classrooms to go paperless by using Turnitin—slashing costs while reducing the use of paper, water, landfills, and ink.
http://www.todaystmj4.com/features/specialassignment/120516624.html
UCLA: The Consequences of Undermining Success Academic misconduct cases typically fall into two categories—cheating and plagiarism. UCLA handles misconduct with due process and developmental opportunities.
http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/04/the_consequences_of_undermining_success
BBC: Call for Universities to Unite on Plagiarism Six Welsh universities revealed nearly 1000 students were disciplined for significant plagiarism, and there is a need to make the consequences consistent.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-13280594
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UPCOMING EVENTS
User Events
Maximizing Turnitin with GradeMark & PeerMark London, UK
29 June 2011
http://community.turnitin.com/events/event_details.asp?id=152081
Turnitin UK User Group
University of Manchester, UK
21 September 2011
http://community.turnitin.com/events/event_details.asp?id=161208
*****
Webinars
PlagiarismAdvice
Live webinar series focused on plagiarism and academic integrity.
How and Why Students Plagiarize
25 May 2011
http://community.turnitin.com/events/event_details.asp?id=157262
Maximizing Turnitin with GradeMark & PeerMark
26 May 2011
http://community.turnitin.com/events/event_details.asp?id=157236
Identifying and Tackling Plagiarism
8 June 2011
http://community.turnitin.com/events/event_details.asp?id=157257
Designing Plagiarism Out of Coursework
22 June 2011
http://community.turnitin.com/events/event_details.asp?id=157251
Best Practice for Dealing with Academic Misconduct
6 July 2011
http://community.turnitin.com/events/event_details.asp?id=157241
Institutional Policies and Procedures
20 July 2011
http://community.turnitin.com/events/event_details.asp?id=157239
Turnitin Academy Live
Live webinars for integrating Turnitin into your curriculum.
http://community.turnitin.com/?page=academy
*****
Conferences
ASKe Plagiarism Event
Oxford, UK
9 June 2011
http://community.turnitin.com/events/event_details.asp?id=152187
Scotland’s Colleges 2011 Policy Conference Edinburgh, UK
16 June 2011
http://community.turnitin.com/events/event_details.asp?id=161212
The latest newsletter from the Turnitin Academy (21 April 2011) contains useful information on:
– Meeting Education Standards
– Online Peer Review Enhances Learning in any Discipline
as well as many other useful links and articles.
The Turnitin Academy newsletter contains helpful information on:
* The Basics: Viewing Originality Reports
* Going beyond the basics
* Peer Review across the curriculum with PeerMark
* Beyond Awkward: Offering mearning feedback with GradeMark
When using the Assignments tool in WebLearn, the default behaviour is that student papers do get added to the Turnitin database; however, they are used only for comparison purposes and are not released or shown to any other users, apart from the student and instructor concerned. (It may occur in the future that another instructor at another institution may contact you if any of their student submissions match some text in your student’s paper, and then they can request permission to view your student’s paper.)
If you do not want your student papers to be added to the repository, this can only be done when creating an assignment directly in Turnitin via the http://submit.ac.uk interface. There is an explanatory video explaining all about “Creating an assignment” at http://submit.ac.uk/static_jisc/ac_uk_training.html .
TURNITIN ACADEMY
MARCH 2011
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FEATURED ARTICLES
Excluding Quotes in Originality Reports
The exclude quotes feature in Originality Reports reduces the noise in similarity matches so instructors can better evaluate the level of originality in assignments. Many instructors, however, choose to leave quoted materials highlighted to assess the paper’s originality in its entirety.
Turnitin makes it easy to exclude quoted text when viewing the Originality Report:
1. Click on the filters and settings icon (the funnel icon near the bottom of the sidebar)
2. Check the “Exclude Quotes” filter
3. Click “Apply Changes”
Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to Exclude Quotes.
http://turnitin.com/static/helpCenter/excluding_quoted_material.php
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Save Time, Grade Better: GradeMark Shortcuts
Cath Ellis, an English literature instructor and Turnitin power user, shares four GradeMark shortcuts she discovered after grading a virtual stack of essays.
1. Overlaying highlighted matches in GradeMark
2. Searching for QuickMark comments
3. Using keystrokes to save comments
4. Adding comments to highlighted passages
Read on her blog how these shortcuts saved Cath over four hours of grading.
http://cathellis13.blogspot.com/2011/02/grademark-shortcuts.html
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Live Walk-through
New to Turnitin or need a refresher? Join a live product walk-through webinar with a product specialist.
http://community.turnitin.com/?page=dailytraining
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