Plagiarism Prevention Resources

Turnitin with Blackboard Integration and More Online Writing Tools

In 2009, as a cost-saving move, SDSU dropped its use of Turnitin for plagiarism prevention when the SafeAssign service became available through Blackboard at no additional cost. While some faculty found SafeAssign satisfactory, others had concerns about its effectiveness and reliability.

Turnitin returns to SDSU in 2011 with a more robust plagiarism prevention tool, OriginalityCheck, and two new companion tools, PeerMark and GradeMark, which can streamline grading and meaningful feedback on student writing. Faculty can now easily create Turnitin paper, draft, and revision assignments within Blackboard. Students now submit their papers to Turnitin within Blackboard. Turnitin compares the content of those papers to over a billion other papers and documents on the Web, checking for originality and producing originality reports to encourage proper citation and original writing.

With PeerMark, students can review other student papers and give online feedback to their peers. With GradeMark, faculty can insert notes as well as drag-and-drop common feedback while grading work online. For faculty who use rubrics to score writing, rubrics can be created or imported into GradeMark. Rubric element scores automatically generate a final score for a Turnitin assignment in Blackboard's GradeCenter. Or, faculty can enter paper grades directly into GradeCenter, in the column created when the Turnitin assignment was set up.

ITS provides training, coaching, and support along with these online resources to enable effective use of Turnitin. ITS will still offer some support for SafeAssign in Blackboard through Spring 2011.

Learning about Turnitin - Originality Checker, PeerMark, & GradeMark (3:07 minute video)

http://turnitin.com/static/videos/demo.html

Turnitin is integrated with Blackboard

http://turnitin.com/static/support/bbacademic.php

Getting Started - SDSU Faculty/Instructors:

  1. See the Blackboard Academic Integration Instructor Manual (PDF) to learn how to use Turnitin's features (i.e., create a Turnitin assignment, use the OriginalityCheck for plagiarism prevention, PeerMark for students reviewing each other's papers, and GradeMark for online grading) within Blackboard.
  2. See the Recommendations for Faculty in Using SDSU/Turnitin Software for more information on SDSU policies, a recommended syllabus statement, and details of the Turnitin license.
  3. Educate your students about plagiarism and proper citation by including SDSU Resources and External Resources (see below) in your syllabus and/or Blackboard course. Consider linking to the Tips for SDSU Students Using Turnitin document from your Blackboard course.
  4. See Additional Support Resources at right for further assistance.

Getting Started - SDSU Students:

  1. See the Blackboard Academic Integration Student Manual (PDF) for detailed instructions on Turnitin's features within your Blackboard course.
  2. Tips for viewing an originality report (if your instructor gives you access): http://turnitin.com/static/helpCenter/hcStudents.php
  3. See Tips for SDSU Students Using Turnitin (PDF) for additional tips and support.

SDSU Resources

SDSU Plagiarism: The crime of intellectual property by SDSU librarian Pamela Jackson
http://infotutor.sdsu.edu/plagiarism/index.cfm
Academic Senate - University Academic Policies on Cheating and Plagiarism
http://senate.sdsu.edu/policy/pfacademics.html
Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities - Reporting a case of suspected plagiarism to Judicial Procedures Office
http://www.sa.sdsu.edu/srr/complaint1.html

External Resources

Plagiarism: How to avoid it
http://www.aresearchguide.com/6plagiar.html
Cyberplagiarism: Detection and Prevention from Penn State. Wholesale Copying, Cut & Paste, Inappropriate Paraphrase, Citation Guidelines, Practice Exercise
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/cyberplagexamples.html
Detecting and Preventing Classroom Cheating: Promoting Integrity in Assessment by Gregory J. Cizek
http://tinyurl.com/CizekPromotingIntegrity
Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers by Robert Harris.
http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm
Video Primers in an Online Repository for e-Teaching & Learning from Indiana University (See Reducing Plagiarism and Online Writing Activities)
http://www.indiana.edu/~icy/media/de_series.html