[Air-l] turnitin issue

Thu Mar 8 21:40:11 PST 2007

Marj Kibby wrote:
> There is no assumption of guilt

Well, that depends on who is using the system and how it is used. In most cases 
(in my experience), it's used in place of actual teaching about the reasons we 
use attribution, and  how it is done properly (which is dependent on the context).

> Students are required to submit to Turnitin to check that their referencing
> is accurate. In the same way that they are expected to use spelling and
> grammar checks.

And just like spelling and grammar checks cannot teach spelling and grammar, 
turnitin by itself can't teach accurate referencing. In fact, it can't tell the 
difference between properly quoted and attributed citations and plagiarism 
(which is why the teacher always has to look over the results) -- all it does is 
say X% of text exactly matches and here it is. So turnitin is neither designed 
for nor can be used to teach accurate referencing (and how could it know what 
the conventions for that are in different disciplines, fields, institutions, 
cultures? Turnitin, as far as I know, has not reached the level of artificial 
intelligence necessary for it to carry out that goal).

> Turnitin reports are not accessed by staff unless there is reasonable cause
> to suspect that the work is plagiarised, and Turnitin reports cannot be used
> as the sole evidence of plagiarism

I'm presuming that that is that case at your particular institution -- and I'd 
say that's good policy. But unless it is used in pedagogically sound ways, the 
only real use for turnitin is the policing function -- which does indeed presume 
guilt -- do you investigate and invade the privacy of every citizen in a city in 
order to prevent robberies? Not in democratic societies.

I should say that I am not necessarily opposed to turnitin.com per se, rather it 
is the indiscriminate, untrained, and/or pedagogically unsound use of it that 
concerns me. It catches plagiarism, but it also undermines the authority of 
student authors and it facilitates faculty who are happy to continue tasking 
students with poorly designed assignments that almost beg smart students to go 
ahead and plagiarize rather than wasting their time.

> Dr Marjorie Kibby, Senior Lecturer in Communication & Culture Faculty of
> Education and Arts The University of Newcastle,  Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia
>  Marj.Kibby at newcastle.edu.au +61 2 49216604
>>>> Rosanna Tarsiero <rosanna at gionnethics.com> 03/09/07 10:57 AM >>>
> As a student myself (and online instructor), I never plagiarized a paper, and
> I do know that there are persons that do.
> 
> However, the assumption that students need to prove innocent (rather than 
> innocence unless otherwise proven) bothers me a great deal.
> 
> I would refuse both submitting a paper to turnitin AND doing supplemental 
> work. In all honesty, I do hope that some student sooner or later ends up 
> suing colleges. Assuming people to be guilty unless otherwise proven violates
> quite a number of human rights.
> 
> Rosanna Tarsiero
> 
> "Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him."
> 
> --James Allen
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org 
> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Mark Warschauer Sent:
> venerdì 9 marzo 2007 0.50 To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l]
> turnitin issue
> 
> I know of no precedent or case law, but this is an issue that is taken
> seriously here at UC Irvine. Students are usually given the permission to opt
> out of submitting their papers through Turnitin.com, but professors then
> require any students who opt out to complete one or more alternate
> assignments to demonstrate their papers were not plagiarized (and those
> alternatives can be quite onerous).  See examples at 
> http://eee.uci.edu/faculty/ccopenha/39b-student/turnitin.students.htm
> 
> Mark Warschauer
> 
>> Dear AOIRers,
>> 
>> A colleague teaching another course has come across an issue with an 
>> undergrad who refuses to hand in her term paper because the faculty 
>> member's course requires that all papers also be submitted to Turnitin.com.
>> 
>> 
>> The student claims that this violates her own intellectual property because
>> Turnitin reportedly keeps copies for future plagiarism searches.
>> 
>> As a supposed ICT & society "expert," my colleague came to me for advice. 
>> My first thought was horsefeathers.
>> 
>> However, I am wondering if there is any precedent or case law on this in 
>> Canada or the US. (EU would be too different, I think.)
>> 
>> I am not interested in the ethics or the morality of Turnitin, but in how 
>> other situations have been resolved.
>> 
>> Thanks, Barry Wellman 
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>> 
>> Barry Wellman   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology   NetLab Director Centre
>> for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto 455 Spadina
>> Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8    fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at
>> chass.utoronto.ca  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun:
>> http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php 
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>> 
>> 
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