About Turnitin

Faculty must include a statement on the course syllabus if Turnitin is used in the course (more info). Turnitin is a Web-based plagiarism detection service available to TWU faculty and staff worldwide who are currently teaching or support teaching activities at TWU. For more information about Turnitin, please view the FAQ.

For policies of use, please refer to the Faculty Senate document Academic Use Policy - Antiplagiarism Software, Turnitin.

Creating an Account

Turitin has been integrated into Blackboard. No account set-up will be necessary for instructors to access Turnitin. You will be able to access Turnitin through your Blackboard courses when you create class assignments. If you plan to use Turnitin, you must include the syllabus statement below. Contact Brandy Klug at bklug@mail.twu.edu or 940-898-3776 if you have questions.

Turnitin Training Materials For Faculty

Handouts

• Turnitin Quickstart Guide: Creating an Assignment (2 p.) : Instructions and screenshots for creating an assignment in Turnitin.
• Turnitin: Assignments, More options, Submissions, and Reports (6 p.) : Instructions and screenshots for creating a Turnitin assignnment, selecting more options, how students submit assignments to Turnitin, and accessing student submissions and originality reports.
• Blackboard Academic integration instructor manual (30 p.) : Detailed instructions and screenshots for creating an assignment, more options, revision assignments, submitting papers, file upload, accessing the Turnitin assignment inbox, downloading papers, and originality reports.
• Blackboard Academic integration student manual (14 p.) : Instructions and screenshots for submitting a paper, file types and size, how to submit a paper, file upload, and originality reports.

Turnitin Training Videos

• Assignment Setup (7 min 38 sec) : Instructions on setting up an assignment in Turnitin, and selecting assignment options under more options.
• Assignment Inbox (4 min 46 sec) : Instructions on how to access the assignment inbox, downloading original submissions, and viewing originality reports.

 

Turnitin Syllabus Statement for Faculty

The following statement must appear on a course syllabus if Turnitin is used in the course. Please include this paragraph in your syllabus and review it during the first class meeting:

In an effort to ensure the integrity of the academic process, Texas Woman’s University vigorously affirms the importance of academic honesty as defined by the Student Handbook.   Therefore, in an effort to detect and prevent plagiarism, faculty members at Texas Woman’s University may now use a tool called Turnitin to compare a student’s work with multiple sources.   It then reports a percentage of similarity and provides links to those specific sources.   The tool itself does not determine whether or not a paper has been plagiarized.  Instead, that judgment must be made by the individual faculty member.

[Optional statements: All required assignments in this course may be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin or Some of the required assignments in this course may be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin.]

Background

The University has approved the purchase of a license for a web-based antiplagiarism software service, Turnitin, which may be used by students or their instructors to compare the text of writing assignments to an extensive electronic database.

Plagiarism defined at TWU: Plagiarism occurs when a student obtains portions or elements of someone else's work, including materials prepared by another person or agency, and presents those ideas or words as her or his own academic work. The intentional or unintentional use by paraphrase or direct quotation of the published work of another person without full and clear acknowledgement shall constitute plagiarism.

Students are responsible for following guidelines of the appropriate course or discipline (i.e.; MLA, APA).
Conduct Guidleines: http://www.twu.edu/o-sl/StudentLifeOffice/AcademicDishonesty.html
TWU Student Code of Conduct: http://www.twu.edu/o-sl/StudentLifeOffice/StudentCodeofConduct.html
TWU Judicial Process: http://www.twu.edu/o-sl/StudentLifeOffice/AcademicDishonesty.html

Policies for Use

The primary purpose for any antiplagiarism prevention software at TWU is educational. Antiplagiarism technology should be used as a teaching tool. Antiplagiarism technology is merely a tool. The tool alone does not determine whether a paper has been plagiarized. Conversely, students cannot use antiplagiarism tools to prove they have not plagiarized. Instead, that judgment must be made by the individual faculty member. Use of antiplagiarism tools is optional, but if they are used, they must be used according to the policies and guidelines set forth in this document. Instructors must discuss plagiarism and academic integrity with students at the beginning of each course. If students do not consent to having their original work archived in the antiplagiarism tool databases, individual faculty members may use alternative assignments or use other, more traditional, methods for detecting plagiarism. Because papers written for course credit are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), student work submitted to Turnitin by an instructor should use an alias for the student name, and delete any personally-identifiable information. If faculty members suspect that a paper has been plagiarized, and the student does not acknowledge plagiarism, the procedures outlined in Chapter 4 of the Student Handbook must be followed.