On the front page of the Region section in the Grand Rapids Press for today is an excellent story discussing issues with Turnitin plagiarism detection software. The position statement written by Julie, Ellen, and I was mentioned as was the CCCC-IP statement.
The story notes that GVSU paid $18,000 for Turnitin even though there were only 49 cases of academic dishonesty reported at GVSU last year and the number is on the decline. Perhaps this means that they are simply not being reported or that students aren't being caught.
So now I'm curious. What are the reported number of cases at institutions? How much has that changed due to Turnitin? What is the cost for catching those cases (in terms of software subscription), and would the instructor have detected the text as plagiarized without it?
solution in search of problem
I think the use of turnitin is an instance of a solution looking for a problem. As was noted in the story by some admin at GVSU, while cheating is easier, so is catching cheaters. I remember the first time I caught a student who plagiarized (because I had been reading plenty of writing) and went to the first encyclopedia inside the library door and there it was--his essay, in the encyclopedia. I got lucky then, but not it's a piece of cake is a student truly is a cheater. I caught a student last spring and it took about five minutes. If I had to run all student essays through, or support students in running their essays through tii, it would take a lot more than five minutes.
Supporters of tii seem to view this bit of technology as a cure-all that doens't take context into account.
bradley || bleckblog.org