Turnitin is a proprietary internet-based plagiarism detection system developed by iParadigms, LLC. Turnitin is mainly designed to make comparisons between texts contained within a document against three standard paper repositories, namely, student paper repository, current and archived internet and periodicals, journals and publications.
When the text is compared, a percentage similarity index which is also matched to a colour code is generated. The colour codes and indices are:
Blue no matching text
Green one to 24% matching text
Yellow 25 to 49% matching text
Orange 50 to 74% matching text
Red 75 to 100% matching text
Take note that this is only an indication that plagiarism might have occurred. The text which matches other documents is highlighted and numbered. The numbering will correspond to the original sites and documents where the material was extracted.
The level of sensitivity and method of extracting text is not best suited to mathematical formula or code. Mathematical formula can be added to a document using a verity of different methods and because of this it is difficult to compare. Code in its raw text form is able to be compared but because of the nature of code and the way that it contains many repeating terms the originality may point out matches that are not relevant. But generally code in .txt format can be submitted and compared prior to being compiled.
Turnitin provides a faster way of electronically checking documents and encourages correct citation of other people’s material.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Plagiarism - Is it a problem
Plagiarism is major problem in academic writing. Plagiarism may be considered a form of stealing. This raises a number of eyebrows. Is it stealing? Stealing what? Yes, taking someone’s academic writing and ideas and pretending that you are the originator of it is thieving of ideas. The University of the Witwatersrand’s “official definition of plagiarism is the unjustified taking of the ideas, thoughts and writings contained in a particular source and submitting it as if the ideas, thoughts and writings are your own, whereas in fact they are not” (http://web.wits.ac.za/Library/ResearchResources/SubjectPortals/Plagiarim+Portal). To avoid plagiarism, one has to acknowledge the source of ideas.
Muller (unpublished) indicates that plagiarism can be by choice or sometimes not intended. The reasons for deliberate plagiarism can be attributed to number of issues such as one taking short cuts to do assignments, not comprehending what is required of in a given task, cheating, the tendency at or campus tendency and previous learning experiences. The internet and many other electronic databases have a lot of many peoples’ ideas which can easily be copied or cut and pasted when one is writing an article or an assignment. It is the shortest way of doing things and is the wrong way. From previous learning experiences, some institutions, schools, lecturers and teachers would not have picked or corrected a learner who would have plagiarized. This would have become a norm for one to plagiarize. The student might be ignorant of this inadvertently, that is, may be ignorant of referencing techniques and inadvertently plagiarise. In such scenarios, the educators have a tremendous task not to be punitive. What then can be done to avoid plagiarism?
The educators should assist the students with good academic writing skills which will include proper citation of sources. Most of the first year courses can deliberately assist the students to do their “green” assignments, that is, assist students with best practices of writing assignments with correct acknowledgement of sources of ideas especially with the first assignment. The students can be referred to our library services where they can be assisted in correct ways of referencing.
Plagiarism can be curbed. In my next blog, I would like to focus on how software such as TurnItIn or Safe Assign can be used to detect plagiarism.
NB: The blog checked with University of the Witwatersrand TurnItIn standalone site and gave a score of 0% (green colour code)
References:
Muller, C. (unpublished). Plagiarism and the use of Safe Assign. Wits School of Education.
University of the Witwatersrand. The Library Copyright Services Office. Copyright & Plagiarism – Ignorance of the law is no excuse! Accessed [28 April 2011].
Muller (unpublished) indicates that plagiarism can be by choice or sometimes not intended. The reasons for deliberate plagiarism can be attributed to number of issues such as one taking short cuts to do assignments, not comprehending what is required of in a given task, cheating, the tendency at or campus tendency and previous learning experiences. The internet and many other electronic databases have a lot of many peoples’ ideas which can easily be copied or cut and pasted when one is writing an article or an assignment. It is the shortest way of doing things and is the wrong way. From previous learning experiences, some institutions, schools, lecturers and teachers would not have picked or corrected a learner who would have plagiarized. This would have become a norm for one to plagiarize. The student might be ignorant of this inadvertently, that is, may be ignorant of referencing techniques and inadvertently plagiarise. In such scenarios, the educators have a tremendous task not to be punitive. What then can be done to avoid plagiarism?
The educators should assist the students with good academic writing skills which will include proper citation of sources. Most of the first year courses can deliberately assist the students to do their “green” assignments, that is, assist students with best practices of writing assignments with correct acknowledgement of sources of ideas especially with the first assignment. The students can be referred to our library services where they can be assisted in correct ways of referencing.
Plagiarism can be curbed. In my next blog, I would like to focus on how software such as TurnItIn or Safe Assign can be used to detect plagiarism.
NB: The blog checked with University of the Witwatersrand TurnItIn standalone site and gave a score of 0% (green colour code)
References:
Muller, C. (unpublished). Plagiarism and the use of Safe Assign. Wits School of Education.
University of the Witwatersrand.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Software ad "Politick"
Software and “politick”
“I will not advertise freely for Microsoft!!!”
“Microsoft licenses are expensive”
This has become a big debate in the usage, teaching and training of Campus wide users. A number of questions have been raised and some of the questions are:
Should we train users on MS Office suite or Open Source Suite?
What do our clients use?
What do our clients want to use?
What are our users’ needs?
What software is readily available to our users/clients?
Is it expensive to get an authentic MS office suite licence?
…. “ you can add on to this debate”….
I have been exposed so much to MS office suite from the time I started on my computing journey. I would like to say, I am very cormfortable in the usage of MS office and of late I have upgraded my suite to 2010 version.
I would like to make a few claims, found or unfound, that MS office suite is readily available on Wits University computer laboratories; most of the offices at this campus use MS office and most educational institutions (GED, FET and HET) in Gauteng use MS Office suite. From these claims I have made (off cause without statistical backing) I would advocate for training our users/clients on MS office suite.
… What is your take?
“I will not advertise freely for Microsoft!!!”
“Microsoft licenses are expensive”
This has become a big debate in the usage, teaching and training of Campus wide users. A number of questions have been raised and some of the questions are:
Should we train users on MS Office suite or Open Source Suite?
What do our clients use?
What do our clients want to use?
What are our users’ needs?
What software is readily available to our users/clients?
Is it expensive to get an authentic MS office suite licence?
…. “ you can add on to this debate”….
I have been exposed so much to MS office suite from the time I started on my computing journey. I would like to say, I am very cormfortable in the usage of MS office and of late I have upgraded my suite to 2010 version.
I would like to make a few claims, found or unfound, that MS office suite is readily available on Wits University computer laboratories; most of the offices at this campus use MS office and most educational institutions (GED, FET and HET) in Gauteng use MS Office suite. From these claims I have made (off cause without statistical backing) I would advocate for training our users/clients on MS office suite.
… What is your take?
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Best Practices - MCQ-ing
Very interesting article, podcast and a blog on MCQs.
Summary of literature review and a podcast:
http://thectleforum.com/wordpress/2010/03/multiple-choice/
Best practice Blog on Designing and Grading Exams:
http://tomprofblog.mit.edu/2009/03/25/932-general-guidelines-for-developing-multiple-choice-items/
Summary of literature review and a podcast:
http://thectleforum.com/wordpress/2010/03/multiple-choice/
Best practice Blog on Designing and Grading Exams:
http://tomprofblog.mit.edu/2009/03/25/932-general-guidelines-for-developing-multiple-choice-items/
Friday, October 15, 2010
What is blended learning
quotations!!!
Blending "focuses on mingling together in ways that lead to a well-balanced combination, to mix, mingle, to unite intimately, so as to form a uniform or harmonious mixture" (Osguthorpe and Graham, 2003:229)
Garrrison and Kanuka (2004:95) ....."the thoughtful integration of classroom face-to-face learning experiences with online experiences"
Blending "focuses on mingling together in ways that lead to a well-balanced combination, to mix, mingle, to unite intimately, so as to form a uniform or harmonious mixture" (Osguthorpe and Graham, 2003:229)
Garrrison and Kanuka (2004:95) ....."the thoughtful integration of classroom face-to-face learning experiences with online experiences"
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