Description of Activity – Identifying Plagiarism
Subject/Content – Plagiarism
Type: Webinar
Length: 2 hours total activity time
Orgnaniser: OneHE
Presenter: Robin Price
Format: 35 minute video + note-taking. Total time: 2 hours.
The focus of this webinar is on identifying plagiarism, specifically interpreting TurnItIn scores. I’m interested in this topic because technology provides a wealth of tools to help students to cheat, many are making use of those tools, and I’d like to keep up to date with the topics. A very significant part of my job as Campus Librarian in teaching students about academic integrity, what plagiarism is, how to avoid plagiarism, and referencing. Often, I give students introductions to TurnItIn, help them understand how to retrieve and interpret Similarity Scores, and what to do to improve their scores. I also advise lecturers on referencing, and, on some occasions, help lecturers determine whether or not students have accidentally or intentionally plagiarised.
There were some really interesting indications of how students cheat, using spin-bots, and white writing to fool TurnItIn. I certainly won’t be telling students about those methods, but possibly handy to know to pass on to lecturers. I’ve taken notes, and stored the suggested article, so I can pass that on to lecturers as well.
