Change Name of Plagiarism Framework

[zdeb]

Our faculty who are interested in using Turnitin as an Assignment option rather than an external tool have had a viscerally negative reaction to labeling the option "Plagiarism Framework".   This highly negative connotation will ensure very limited adoption of the option.   We recommend a change in the label from "Plagiarism Review"to "Originality Check".     

[laurakgibbs]

I hear what you are saying, but I see it differently: you use the plagiarism detection tool because you don't trust the students. You might want it to communicate a message about ethical behavior, but it also communicates a lack of trust. Letting the students think you don't trust them means they will have no reason to trust you in return. I want and need for my students to trust me; I feel like I owe them my trust in return.

There are advantages and disadvantages to every approach, and each person weighs them differently, of course. Just speaking for myself, as I weigh the advantages and disadvantages in that balance, I far prefer the option of trusting the students, and showing them that I trust them in the choices I make in my course design and in the tools I use.

Re: the specific uses of the plagiarism detection tool: I am never at a loss for what to discuss with students when it comes to their writing, and I aspire to more than paraphrasing in the writing that they do. 🙂

[bdalton_sales]

I find it really interesting that even despite the huge efforts universities go to that some students still don't understand why its an issue.  I know that there are several Australian universities who have implemented mandatory modules students MUST complete before they can get their grades released at the end of semester.  It was so important that one of them had a custom tool built into Canvas to ensure visibility of module completion for the instructors.

On the flip side (and not to divert the conversation) when I was running a lecture capture system at La Trobe uni back in the day the number of academics who didn't or refused to understand copyright issues was astounding <runs and hides>

[laurakgibbs]

Yes yes yes yes, Deactivated user‌ ... that is so true, and as always I think it is really helpful to think about what WE need to learn as faculty, focusing on our own gaps and failings, knowing that as we improve on those gaps and failings, it will benefit all our students.

I don't have plagiarism problems because of the types of writing assignments I create in my classes, but I do see students sometimes using generic boilerplate in their comments that they reuse when commenting on each other's work, and of course that generic boilerplate means that the comment is of little value to the other student, so to work on that I have designed some activities to give students better skills in make specific feedback, and also in helping them appreciate the importance of specific, actionable feedback. Are faculty sometimes guilty of the same generic feedback? Of course we are. So I am also all the time working on improving my own feedback too, knowing that I am modeling for the students.

I also see problems with image use where students do not credit the images they use, and do not even think about crediting images. They have had bibliography beaten into them for years and years, but nobody talks about image credits, and of course faculty use uncredited images all the time, even in course materials. So, again, I try to make sure that I teach students about image citation, set it as a standard, model it in my course materials, and encourage them in their good practices.

I could go on... but I hope people don't think that my loathing for TurnItIn is about trying to avoid issues of responsibility and good behavior. Just the opposite. TurnItIn undermines the kind of mutual trust I want to establish in my classes precisely so that I can push my students hard to learn new things and take responsibility for their own work.

[Jeff_F]

Awesome response.  And yes, I will be using the "I just work here" line.  I hope that is pre-approved so I am not flagged for non-originality.   :smileycheck:

[nhirsig]

Turnitin is not the only plagiarism detection application available for use in the Canvas Plagiarism Framework.

Unicheck (in Canvas) allows students to pre-check their paper (up to 5 times) and receive a similarity report that is NOT sent to the instructor. Once the student finalizes their paper, they can submit it to the assignment and a similarity report is generated for the instructor.

Turnitin is a "gotcha" application.

Unicheck is a plagiarism teaching/learning tool

That being said, I do think that "Originality Check" is a better label (and description of what is actually happening in Unicheck) than "Plagiarism Review".

[ProductPanda]

Comments from Instructure

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