Turnitin

(Source: Information on this page was obtained from the Turnitin Instructor User Guide)

Background Information

What is Turnitin?
Turnitin is a totally web-based tool which provides an online plagiarism prevention service for both educators and learners. For further information visit http://www.turnitin.com/static/products_services/plagiarism_prevention.html

Whilst effective to help identify suspected individual cases of plagiarism, or as a deterrent, Turnitin plagiarism prevention is even more effective when used as an educational tool.

Digital versions of papers submitted to the Turnitin web site are compared against billions of documents online, including Turnitin's local databases of submitted student papers. Any matching text is detailed in an Originality Report which includes direct source comparison.

Originality Reports provide a summary of the matching text found in a submitted paper. The colour of the report icon (blue, green, orange, yellow, red) indicates the overall similarity index of the paper, based on how much matching text Turnitin finds. Originality Reports are tools to help users find sources that contain similar text to submitted papers. The decision on whether or not the work is plagiarised still needs to be made by the educator, and only after careful examination of both the submitted paper and the suspect sources.

University of Adelaide and Turnitin
A trial of the Turnitin software was undertaken in 2003. The report from this trial may be found at:
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/clpd/resources/reports/index.html
The University of Adelaide has a University-wide licence to access Turnitin. At this stage, only the Plagiarism Prevention facility is enabled (not the grademark, peer review, gradebook or digital portfolio facilities).

Latest Updates

Several new features and enhancements to Turnitin include:

• Instructors can now quickly download multiple papers for an assignment from their assignment inbox in .zip format.
• The character upload for submissions has been increased from 150,000 to 1 million characters. This change lets users submit longer papers including most theses.
• An upload metre shows instructors the progress of their zip uploads.
• A research resource site with information on plagiarism for both instructors and students. It is particularly effective in outlining how to avoid plagiarism through effective research and citing sources. Go to: http://www.turnitin.com/research_site/e_home.html

Australian Legal Opinion

For Australian institutions, Turnitin has obtained a legal opinion from Blake Dawson Waldron, one of Australia's leading international law firms, to ensure that our use of student work complies with Australian copyright and privacy laws.
Click here http://turnitin.com/static/pdf/australian_legal.pdf to view this legal opinion.

Who Can Use Turnitin?

All University of Adelaide staff (instructors) and students can use Turnitin. Instructors can submit student papers to check for plagiarism. Alternatively students can submit their own papers, either as a course requirement or for personal checking.

Getting Access to Turnitin

Accounts have been created for each School in the University.

Instructors may request access to their School account by submitting the online Turnitin Access Request form (staff only).

You will then receive an automatic email from Turnitin confirming your access and informing you of the login instructions. Each instructor is then responsible for setting up their own classes and deciding how their students will use Turnitin.

How to Use Turnitin

• Quick Guide to Turnitin for Instructors
  This quick overview prepared for University of Adelaide staff is adapted from the full Turnitin Instructor User Guide.
   
• Frequently Asked Questions for Instructors using Turnitin.
   
• Visit Turnitin's training site for more videos and guides.

Turnitin Training Videos (requires Macromedia Flash Player)

• Instructor Training video
• Originality Report video

Quickstarts
Turnitin quickstarts are designed to help new users get started with Turnitin.

• Instructor Quickstart
• Student Quickstart
   
• See also the Quick Guide for Students.

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