BFC assesses originality detector pilot program

Whether it's an F for the course, the risk of expulsion from IU or just a guilty conscience, the stakes are high for students who plagiarize. And because of www.Turnitin.com, now it's even easier to detect.\nTurnitin is an online service that can be used as a plagiarism deterrent. According to the Web site, it sends out what it calls "automated web robots" daily to search the Internet for essays, articles and other forms of word documents to add to their extensive database. It boasts a collection of millions of papers, and says it receives more than 20,000 in a given day. Universities and high schools in over 50 countries are currently licensed to its service. And IU could be next.\nDavid Goodrum, director of the teaching and learning technologies centers, said IU has been running a Turnitin pilot program for nearly 18 months to decide whether the university will purchase a site license. Goodrum spoke to members of the Bloomington Faculty Council when they met Tuesday to give the members a progress report. \n"Instructors from across 52 different departments have taken a look at (www.Turnitin.com) or tried it with courses," Goodrum said. "We recently sent out an e-mail to instructors who had activated an account and asked them for feedback. About 30 percent responded and they were overwhelmingly positive about it." \nGoodrum said while this percentage may seem low, feedback surveys rarely generate many replies. He said he encourages more users to voice their opinions. Goodrum said in gauging their responses, the majority of faculty use Turnitin to educate students rather than to police them.\n"There were several faculty members who said it was a good teaching tool because it helped students learn how to cite properly and promoted classroom discussion about what exactly is your own work," Goodrum said. "And that was the approach the BFC had recommended as the best way to use it a year or more ago."\nDavid Daleke, BFC president, said the council wants to hear more feedback before they encourage the campus to adopt Turnitin. \n"It's an expensive program, and that's why we're looking for this type of evaluation," Daleke said. "I'm more interested in hearing about what users' opinions are and I think most of the faculty are looking for more in-depth data before we make a decision. I think the goal is to facilitate the education process."\nGoodrum said a license for the program would cost the Bloomington campus roughly $20,000 to $26,000 a year. He estimated the expense would break down to less than a dollar a student, although not all students would use it. If licensed, Goodrum said all classes and students could submit an unlimited number of papers. \nTo use the service, instructors and students just submit electronic copies of their papers to Turnitin. The papers then get compared to everything in the system: millions of pages of books, academic papers, internet materials and even papers students have recycled for different classes. Then users can view an "originality report" for their document. Turnitin will reveal percentage of the work found in other sources. Papers with high percentages of unoriginal material are red flagged, although the system can't differentiate between a direct quote and the intention to copy. Upon a thorough review of the work in question, it is up to the instructor to interpret the results and decide whether or not the results spell plagiarism. \nIU's Turnitin pilot program will end in August. If the University subscribes, the system will be available for the next academic year. Goodrum said the BFC will probably make its recommendation before March, but before it does it is waiting on more feedback and trying to come up with solutions for some of the issues that have been brought up. Some members are concerned about the outcome of student submissions being sent to a commercial firm. \n"Turnitin is clear about their privacy policy and the papers are in an encrypted form on the database," Goodrum said. "But still, IU, from a policy standpoint, is concerned about handing over papers for use that's outside of our control."\nGoodrum said papers that are submitted generally go into an open database and stay there indefinitely. They are then used to compare against all submissions.\n"What IU council would like to see is the institution controlling its own submissions and what happens to them long-term," Goodrum said. "Particularly if we were to dissolve our contract with Turnitin, IU council desires for IU to control those submissions long-term." \nGoodrum said one solution to this problem is for IU student submissions to be kept separately. This way other institutions won't be able to compare against IU submissions and IU can request for papers to be deleted if the university decided to discontinue using Turnitin.\n"Over the course of our pilot, 3,400 students used Turnitin and nearly 11,000 papers were submitted," Goodrum said. "I think we've had a sufficient amount of usage for the university to say whether the service is worth continuing."\nHolly Stocking, who teaches a senior-level ethics course in the school of journalism, said she's been using Turnitin since last spring. However, Stocking doesn't use it to police the students. Instead she gives students access to the service so they can police themselves. She requires students to run reports on all the papers they write and then to give her copies of reports along with their papers. This way, she said, they have the opportunity to rewrite problem areas to ensure they aren't misappropriating someone else's work.\n"We know the memory works in funny ways and people can forget the source of information sometimes," Stocking said. "And this is a way to flag things that might get missed in a very innocent way."\nStocking also often invites Laura Plummer , assistant director of the Campus Writing Program, to talk to students about how they can avoid plagiarism. Her goal is for students to do work that is both technically and morally excellent. Stocking said Turnitin has provided her with the opportunity to educate students about the importance of integrity in their work.\n"It isn't just about getting caught," Stocking said. "There are lots of other reasons for why people should be honest about their work. It can damage you and can damage others. Turnitin is a very valuable tool, but if we're just using it to police, then I'm not sure we're doing our job."\nJunior Courtney Marvel said she thinks faculty would be misusing Turnitin if they only did so to police students. She is familiar with the system because two of her professors have been using it. Marvel said she believes many students get into trouble because they don't realize what does and does not constitute plagiarism. \n"Professors need to focus more on explaining plagiarism and what it means to write your own work while using sources," Marvel said. "What determines plagiarism is so broad. Although someone may use someone's work to write their own, most often they are not using the information out of spite. Rather, they simply don't understand when they have crossed that thin line."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu