"Teaching takes place as students handle collections, work in labs, engage in fieldwork and argue a position in a seminar."
Dr Bill Sillar, Institute of Archaeology
QUICK LINKS
- Lecturecast: A system for recording lectures and events and making them available online
- Moodle: A virtual learning environment which enhances teaching by allowing staff to create their courses online
- Electronic voting systems: Teaching tools to establish students' knowledge and opinions
- E-Learning Environments (ELE): Supporting staff and students at UCL to use technology to enhance teaching and learning
- E-Learning Strategy 2012-2015
Turnitin
Supplied to UCL by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), Turnitin is an online tool used for deterring and detecting plagiarism. It works by scanning students' work against a large database of websites, books, journals and previously submitted papers. Turnitin establishes matches in students' work by producing a similarity score and an originality report.
- A similarity score identifies how much of the submitted work Turnitin can identify as being matched to another source
- An originality report identifies each match in more detail and allows a more thorough investigation of the original source
The score and report provide valuable guidance in considering whether work has been plagiarised, although plagiarism remains an academic decision. This feedback process supports students in developing their own knowledge about plagiarism and referencing as well as their wider academic writing skills.
Accessing Turnitin
You can introduce Turnitin assignments within Moodle, where students can submit their work and view their submissions and reports.
Informing students
In order to comply with data protection legislation it is important to obtain students' consent before submitting their work to Turnitin. They should also be fully briefed about plagiarism and on the method of assignment submission being employed. Examples of assignment submission workflow could include:
- Students submit work through Turnitin and in hard copy for traditional marking and feedback
- Students submit work only through Turnitin and not in hard copy. The assignments may be printed out for marking and feedback or this may be done online
To ensure fairness, you should either put all student work on a particular assignment through Turnitin or none at all. Submitting selected pieces of work to Turnitin cannot be allowed as this could be construed as discrimination.
Students' consent should also be provided if you are storing their work in the Turnitin database for future checks. If Moodle is being used for assignment submission then students will be asked to confirm acceptance of this before their work is submitted.
Resources and support
The following guides provide information on using Turnitin with Moodle:
- How to set up a Turnitin assignment within Moodle
- How to view and interpret the Turnitin similarity score and originality reports
- Marking Turnitin assignments via Moodle - Moodle miniguide
For students:
- Guidance for students submitting work via Turnitin in Moodle
- Guidance for students submitting work via Turnitin directly
- Citing references and avoiding plagiarism
Contact and training
To find out more, book onto the Deterring and detecting plagiarism with Turnitin course, which is run by E-Learning Environments (ELE).
For help and support, contact ELE.
Page last modified on 02 oct 12 10:06
Tell us about the inspiring teaching and learning taking place in your department: email ele.cooper@ucl.ac.uk or call 020 7679 5992 (internal extension 45992).
