2008 Woodie Awards
Popular Web site catches plagiarism
Jeremy Pink
Issue date: 3/19/08 Section: News
The search engine technology that has long made it easy for students to plagiarize has now been adapted for professors and made available at UW-Whitewater to stop such plagiaristic practices.
The end of the spring semester will mark the second year Turnitin, a program developed by iParadigms, has been available to UW-Whitewater professors.
Turnitin is a search engine widely used by instructors to scan academic papers and check for plagiarism and improper citation. The scanned paper is cross referenced with the millions of texts across the internet as well as with papers previously submitted to Turnitin.
Lorna Wong, director of Instructional Technology Services, said the university first ran a pilot program in the spring semester of 2006 which was implemented in the fall semester of 2006.
Wong said there are approximately 80 professors who have registered accounts with Turnitin, which is an increase since its first semester at UW-Whitewater.
"There's definitely a steady increase," Wong said. "When we first started the pilot, we had about 17 faculty. When we first were doing the pilot, we did a survey of the faculty ... and we did another survey a year after adoption [to the university], and the general feedback has been very positive."
James Kates, a lecturer in the College of Arts and Communication, is one of the instructors gaining an affinity for the program.
"I have not used it yet," Kates said. "I just took a seminar to learn how, but I will be using it this semester. It's a pretty amazing program."
Kates said he remembers a run in with plagiarism with a few of his students, and he sees Turnitin as an effective tool to prevent plagiarism.
"I was not happy about it," Kates said. "I had a sense of disappointment. I think that's a fairly common experience for professors. When they see it for the first time, they're flabbergasted."
Although Turnitin can be used to catch students who plagiarize, Kates believes the program has a greater use in educating students about plagiarism.
"A professor doesn't want problems like this to occur," Kates said. "It shouldn't be a matter of 'gotcha.' I don't want to do that, and I don't want my students to be in a position like that. I see it as a measure of quality control to maintain the integrity of the course ... and the value of a university degree."
According to statistics from ITS, more than 10,000 papers have been submitted to Turnitin from UW-Whitewater professors during the two years the program has been available to them. Of those more than 10,000 papers, 16 percent were returned with 60-75 percent matches for plagiarism, and 75 percent of the papers were returned with a 25 percent or lower match rate for plagiarism.
The end of the spring semester will mark the second year Turnitin, a program developed by iParadigms, has been available to UW-Whitewater professors.
Turnitin is a search engine widely used by instructors to scan academic papers and check for plagiarism and improper citation. The scanned paper is cross referenced with the millions of texts across the internet as well as with papers previously submitted to Turnitin.
Lorna Wong, director of Instructional Technology Services, said the university first ran a pilot program in the spring semester of 2006 which was implemented in the fall semester of 2006.
Wong said there are approximately 80 professors who have registered accounts with Turnitin, which is an increase since its first semester at UW-Whitewater.
"There's definitely a steady increase," Wong said. "When we first started the pilot, we had about 17 faculty. When we first were doing the pilot, we did a survey of the faculty ... and we did another survey a year after adoption [to the university], and the general feedback has been very positive."
James Kates, a lecturer in the College of Arts and Communication, is one of the instructors gaining an affinity for the program.
"I have not used it yet," Kates said. "I just took a seminar to learn how, but I will be using it this semester. It's a pretty amazing program."
Kates said he remembers a run in with plagiarism with a few of his students, and he sees Turnitin as an effective tool to prevent plagiarism.
"I was not happy about it," Kates said. "I had a sense of disappointment. I think that's a fairly common experience for professors. When they see it for the first time, they're flabbergasted."
Although Turnitin can be used to catch students who plagiarize, Kates believes the program has a greater use in educating students about plagiarism.
"A professor doesn't want problems like this to occur," Kates said. "It shouldn't be a matter of 'gotcha.' I don't want to do that, and I don't want my students to be in a position like that. I see it as a measure of quality control to maintain the integrity of the course ... and the value of a university degree."
According to statistics from ITS, more than 10,000 papers have been submitted to Turnitin from UW-Whitewater professors during the two years the program has been available to them. Of those more than 10,000 papers, 16 percent were returned with 60-75 percent matches for plagiarism, and 75 percent of the papers were returned with a 25 percent or lower match rate for plagiarism.
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