Ananova reports that a plagiarism software detection service went national in Great Britain. The JISC National Plagiarism Advisory Service is hosted at Northumbria University and is available to college faculty. Their site explains that "the JISC detection service is based on the 'turnitin.com' provided, developed and supplied by the US company iParadigms."
Somehow, I knew Turnitin had to be involved. It's beginning to feel like a plague. Can't imagine how much money is being poured into Turnitin's pocket through this program. It'll give them the financial resources to market even more aggressively here in the US.
Re: Students facing computer test for plagiarised work
Every semester I consider suggesting something like turnitin.com for my department. My own anti-plagiarism strategies are pro-active, in that I try to create a situation where students feel they don't have much to gain by plagiarizing -- either becuase they figure I know the Internet well enough to find the sources they've stolen, or because I require a steady stream of thesis statements, bibliographies, one-on-one meetings, and revisions. It's time consuming, and it's not foolproof -- but it's the cliche "low-tech, high-touch" method. For my litertaure colleagues who don't know about sparknotes.com, a technological solution like this would probably give a false sense of security. Still, there would probably be a significant percentage of students who are scared out of cheating because they feel that turnitin.com will catch them. I suppose I try to supply that scare tactic passively, just by demonstrating in class that I know my way around the Internet.
Re: Students facing computer test for plagiarised work
I'd like to see education go another route. I recently talked with someone here in FSU administration reviewing Turnitin and suggested that it would be better to home grow a Google app using Google's Web API. Shouldn't be too tough to build an interactive search program that mimics what I do, and I'm sure you do, to check and see if something's on the Net. Open source it and give it away once it's completed. I'd also rather pay Google a slight licensing fee (Google Web API's only get 1000 searches a day for free), then Turnitin, and employ university programmers instead of corporate ones.
At the same time, I kind of wish Turnitin or my idea about a Google app were not an option. Your "steady stream" is a better pedagogical method for teaching, one that Internet plagiarism may eventually force on those who would prefer not to be involved at all in the writing/researching processes of their students. Education might end up being better off in the long run.
Re: Students facing computer test for plagiarised work
Hmm... since it's a sort of perversion of the open source mentality that leads students to feel that they're entitled to plagiarize, it would be interesting to use the open source model to develop an anti-plagiarizing tool. Such a tool would certainly make using Google to catch plagiarists easier. Students with ethical impairment will still cheat, bit the next most important factor in the problem -- outdated teaching methods -- won't be solved by technology.
Related funny, found on Baritaria.net
De Profundis
(With apologies to Dorothy Parker.)
Oh, is it horribly imprudent
To hope that I might have a student
Who, while plagiarizing, learns
To skip past Google's top returns?
BTW, is there some way we can make these editing boxes bigger? I'm having to do a lot of scrolling.
Re: Students facing computer test for plagiarised work
"BTW, is there some way we can make these editing boxes bigger? I'm having to do a lot of scrolling."
Only by hacking the codebase. I always hesitate to do so, unless it's a bug, because then I have to rehack when I upgrade.
The code base is also 6mb, which can sometimes make it fun trying to find how to make changes.