Nowadays, more and more students are using computers and the Internet for their studies. The Internet exposes students to a wealth of information relevant to their subject. But it also gives the temptation to simply copy and paste extracts from online materials into their essays without acknowledging the source. Students should acquire Internet search skills and also learn where they can find relevant learning materials online through services such as Intute Virtual_Learning_Suite. On the other hand they should also be aware of what constitutes plagiarism and what consequences it may have. Plagiarism has become a problem for many HE institutions and the LTSN_Generic_Centre has therefore published a detailed brochure for those who would like to obtain more information.
The lecturer is often left helpless, knowing that passages of an essay have been lifted as suddenly the language, style and tone changes but unable to give the source. Sometimes the entire essay may have been lifted from another college or a cheat site. The Jisc Plagiarism Detection Service is currently freely available to Higher Education institutions.
When students submit their work, the service carries out a comparison of this work with over 800 million web sites and returns a colour coded report with any matches found in a document. With the help of this information the lecturer can make a more informed decision on whether the student has plagiarised.
Diana Driscoll from the Registry and Peter Leffek from ITS offer hands-on introductions for lecturers and administrative staff in order to use this service just in time for the next submission of essays. Please see current ITS_workshop_timetable. You can also go directly to the JISC plagiarism detection service.
Further information about integration of Turnitin with WebCT CE6 including a Flash Demonstration.
Further Reading:
Lorraine Stefani & Jude Carroll: A_Briefing_on_Plagiarism. LTSN Generic Centre, Assessment Series No.10.