2008 Woodie Awards
Turnitin helps Mesa teachers prevent plagiarism
Shayla Durrett
Issue date: 5/29/07 Section: News
Mesa has been taking measures to prevent plagiarism for the past two years with
a subscription to Turnitin.com, the online plagiarism prevention site.
Mesa spends about $5,000 each year for the service that includes Peer Review,
GradeMark and GradeBook as well as plagiarism prevention features.
"I think it is worth the money we are charged since that price covers all Mesa
instructors and in the future I expect more may decide to use the program," said
William Craft, Dean of Learning Resources and Technology. "However, if the price
were to go higher, or if only a few instructors used the program I would have to
reconsider."
Every instructor at Mesa has the option of using Turnitin, but less than 30 use
it in their curriculum.
"It's an extra effort to use the system," Craft said. "Most teachers can
tell if a student has written his own paper--especially if the teacher gives in
class assignments as well. Also, if the student is copying from the Internet,
Google will find it for the teacher."
The professors who do use Turnitin are impressed with its ability.
"Turnitin is extremely effective because it thoroughly searches the Internet as
well as its own collection of student papers," said Biology Professor Paul
Sykes.
Journalism professor and Mesa Press advisor Janna Braun began using Turnitin
this Spring after she caught a student plagiarizing. Braun tested the site out
by submitting articles from online sites like Wikipedia, New York Times and
Yahoo! News. Turnitin gave the articles a grade of zero percent plagiarized.
Turnitin.com claims to search billions of current and archived Internet sources.
A representative for Turnitin said that they follow Wikipedia but their database
is only updated periodically, whereas Wikipedia changes constantly.
"I am a bit skeptical as I imagine that much of Wikipedia is not changing all
that quickly," said Leslie Seiger, faculty service advisor for Turnitin.
a subscription to Turnitin.com, the online plagiarism prevention site.
Mesa spends about $5,000 each year for the service that includes Peer Review,
GradeMark and GradeBook as well as plagiarism prevention features.
"I think it is worth the money we are charged since that price covers all Mesa
instructors and in the future I expect more may decide to use the program," said
William Craft, Dean of Learning Resources and Technology. "However, if the price
were to go higher, or if only a few instructors used the program I would have to
reconsider."
Every instructor at Mesa has the option of using Turnitin, but less than 30 use
it in their curriculum.
"It's an extra effort to use the system," Craft said. "Most teachers can
tell if a student has written his own paper--especially if the teacher gives in
class assignments as well. Also, if the student is copying from the Internet,
Google will find it for the teacher."
The professors who do use Turnitin are impressed with its ability.
"Turnitin is extremely effective because it thoroughly searches the Internet as
well as its own collection of student papers," said Biology Professor Paul
Sykes.
Journalism professor and Mesa Press advisor Janna Braun began using Turnitin
this Spring after she caught a student plagiarizing. Braun tested the site out
by submitting articles from online sites like Wikipedia, New York Times and
Yahoo! News. Turnitin gave the articles a grade of zero percent plagiarized.
Turnitin.com claims to search billions of current and archived Internet sources.
A representative for Turnitin said that they follow Wikipedia but their database
is only updated periodically, whereas Wikipedia changes constantly.
"I am a bit skeptical as I imagine that much of Wikipedia is not changing all
that quickly," said Leslie Seiger, faculty service advisor for Turnitin.
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