Student Perceptions of a Trial of Electronic Text Matching Software: A Preliminary Investigation.

It is accepted that using electronic detection methods has benefits within an overall strategy to promote academic integrity in an institution. Little attention has been paid to obtaining student perceptions to evaluate the cost/benefit of using such methods. This study reports on the evaluation of a trial of Turnitin software. 728 students responded to a survey about their thoughts on plagiarism and being involved in the trial. This study found that students were generally unsure about the benefits and whether the university should use the software. In particular, two groups of students showed significant differences to the rest of the students sampled. While Non English Speaking Background (NESB) students reported higher levels of perceived usefulness of the software, they also reported higher levels of anxiety about the impact on them. Law students reported lower levels of perceived usefulness of the software and higher levels of concern and mistrust. The impact of such perceptions on the learning environment needs to be investigated. Special attention may be needed in introducing such software to different groups of students in order to limit possible deleterious effects and enhance potential benefits. S t u d e n t P e r c e p t i o n s o f a T r i a l o f E l e c t ro n i c T e x t M a t ch i n g S o f t w a r e : A P r e l i m i n a r y I n v e s t i g a t i o n D . Gr e en , I . L i nd e ma nn , K . Marsh a l l a nd G . Wi l k in s on Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice 26 Introduction Promoting academic integrity has become a major focus in universities in recent times. Universities are expected to minimise plagiarism, collusion and cheating to maintain academic standards. Many authors have argued that in order to minimise plagiarism and collusion within a university, a range of strategies need to be implemented. A general culture of academic integrity needs to be engendered across all levels of the university; students need to be taught referencing and writing skills and be given the opportunity to practice these; academics need to design courses which reduce opportunities for plagiarism and collusion; policy needs to be reviewed and applied in a way which is workable and ensures students are treated fairly and consistently; and detection methods need to be applied (McCabe, Klebe Trevino et al. 2001; Carroll 2002; James, McInnis et al. 2002; Allan, Callagher et al. 2005). In order to address these strategies, Flinders University is currently undertaking an integrated Academic Integrity Management Strategy (AIMS) project (Flinders University 2005; Evans and Green 2005) which has 4 overlapping elements: • Student education • Staff education • Policy review • Trial of electronic detection methods The student education element involves the development of an online learning package which helps students understand academic integrity, explains its benefits, gives information about referencing and working together, and gives examples and practice questions to aid understanding. An online test will also be available. The staff education aspect aims to inform staff of the educative, and therefore preventative, aspects of the overall strategy. This includes how to educate students about academic integrity, how to design courses and set meaningful assessment tasks which minimise opportunities for plagiarism and collusion, and how to model academic integrity in teaching. A policy review is being undertaken to ensure workable, consistent and fair policies are in place across the institution. The focus of this paper is on the trial of electronic detection methods. It was decided that the electronic text matching software, Turnitin was to be trialled on a limited multi-department basis in Semester 1, 2005 and a cost benefit analysis carried out to establish whether the university should purchase an ongoing license for the software. Turnitin is produced by a private US based company and compares submitted assignments against a database which includes archived copies of portions of the Internet, other students’ assignments and some of the ProQuest database. Originality reports are generated which identify the degree to which the assignment matches the content of the database (Turnitin 2005). The trial is being overseen by a management group chaired by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) and consisting of general and academic staff, as well as the General Secretary and the Academic Rights Officer of the Students’ Association. Students involved in the trial were given access to the online materials developed for students as part of AIMS and were informed in detail about the purpose of the trial. An educative, rather than a punitive approach was emphasised, where students could read their own originality reports and resubmit assignments.