This spring, 2,643 papers were submitted during Metro State’s pilot of Turnitin, the so-called anti-plagiarism software. The system tags papers for unoriginal material based on a database filled with 4.5 billion Internet pages, millions of published works as well as student papers already submitted to the service. Turnitin then returns an “originality report” with questionable sections color-coded and tied to original sources.

The pilot program, which ran spring semester, involved 53 faculty members from the schools of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Professional Studies, along with five additional instructors who incorporated the system into their classes.

Of the 2,643 papers entered into Turnitin, the vast majority—2,236 papers—contained material that was 0 to 24 percent unoriginal, meaning text that more than likely involved direct quotations, according to Tara Tull, interim assistant dean of LAS.

The rest played out as follows:

• 173 papers contained text that was 25 to 49 percent unoriginal
•  55 fell in the 50 to 74 percent unoriginal range
• 178 were tagged as 75 to 100 percent unoriginal

Faculty who used the program could choose whether to pursue a case with Judicial Affairs or to use the system to help educate students about plagiarism and proper citation techniques. This spring Judicial Affairs reported 30 “alert” and “discipline” combined plagiarism cases compared with 33 during Spring 2004.

I think students were worried about it being used in a punishing way,” Tull says, “but it’s clear it’s being used in an educational way. The whole point is to enhance academic integrity at the college.”

Turnitin training
The Turnitin system is now available to any faculty member who wants to use it. Official training on the system will be held Aug. 17, 11 a.m.; Aug. 18, 2 p.m. and Aug. 19, 10 a.m. To register for a session email Vince Werner at wernerv@mscd.edu.