Notre Dame uses TurnItIn to assist with AI/plagiarism detection. This is a helpful tool that can easily spot if text has been used from an online source or from past papers submitted into an assignment. Teachers have the ability to use TurnItIn for their assignments starting now! This webinar walks you through all of the features we have with TurnItIn ( Passcode is 2M=FB5+p )
To use TurnItIn
1) Create an assignment like you normally would, but be sure to select "Online" for the submission type.
2) Compared to years past, you'll now see an option to select a plagiarism detector. From the drop-down, choose TurnItIn-NDAPA
* I recommend always trying to store papers in the paper repository. The more robust that is, the more likely we are to see if a student is "borrowing" a paper from an older sibling or fellow classmate.
** Unless you click "Exclude small sources", TurnItIn will check if there's a 2+ word match with another assignment. So if you want to raise that word threshold up, click that button and choose a higher number.
Some additional things to consider here:
- When do you want to show a report to the students? This may include a spelling and grammar check. If you choose immediately, and a post is flagged as plagiarized, it could lead to some interesting emails.
- Be clear about how you want students to view the feedback you give on a paper. TurnItIn has a grammar check option, so if you want students to engage with them, tell them how!
- Lastly, and this is rather important when you first roll out TurnItIn, please stress to the students will never get a perfect score. The internet is filled with so much information, that there's a strong chance parts of a student's paper will overlap with some other writing somewhere. A small amount of overlap in text is to be expected; use your best judgment, and use the score detail in the TurnItIn Video at around minute 10.
- If you want additional support or resources, this help blog has plenty of information!
