Web site gives KU instructors an additional tool to identify plagiarism

LAWRENCE -- The University of Kansas is finding increasing support among its faculty members for a Web-based plagiarism detection service employed since last fall.

In fall 2001, the university signed on with Turnitin.com, a six-year-old Internet service that uses a database of compositions and a search engine to determine the originality of submitted papers. Based in Oakland, Calif., the service employs a team of teachers, students, business professionals and computer designers to stop the spread of Internet plagiarism.

Michele Eodice, director of the KU Writing Center and administrator of the program at KU, said she has discovered growing support for Turnitin.com from faculty and GTAs who have had success with the service.

"Frankly, it is working," she said. "With the feedback I'm getting, it looks like we will recommend continuing."

Since the university signed on with Turnitin.com, Eodice has provided short orientation sessions for more than 50 individual faculty members and 10 departments. Although most of that time is spent familiarizing instructors with Turnitin.com, a portion of each session is devoted to talking about plagiarism and its causes and how to avoid situations that might lead students to copy another's work.

"This needs to be a conversation in every discipline," Eodice said. "We don't want to look at this program as the magic bullet, but it's given us the opportunity to open a discussion."

The university pays a fee to Turnitin.com, and professors and instructors create individual accounts under the KU umbrella. After establishing an account, an educator may submit compositions electronically to the service. In about 48 hours, the service returns its analysis, including links to potential violations. The instructor then must compare the paper to the provided information and determine whether the work has been plagiarized or given appropriate attribution.

"The teacher still has the authority, and it requires that they be a careful reader," Eodice said. "You have to pay attention to the context. You may simply find that a student has found a terrific source and quoted it."

The university includes plagiarism under its code for academic misconduct. According to Article II, Section 6 of the Rules and Regulations of the University Senate, plagiarism is grouped with threatening instructors or fellow students, cheating on exams, forging signatures and changing grades.

Punishment for violations of the code may range from admonition or warning from an instructor to suspension or expulsion from the university.

Information about KU's plagiarism policy is included in the student handbook, the freshman planning guide and each semester's timetable of classes, which all students must consult to enroll.

However, Eodice said instructors must have open and frank discussions with students to help them avoid the pitfalls that can cause plagiarism.

One of those problems is procrastination. Eodice said the tendency to put off a paper until the last minute might test the will of an honest student when compositions are readily available on the Internet.

The Internet also presents problems for students who believe information posted on the Web is automatically a part of the public domain. Although the Internet promotes a free exchange of information, it doesn't change the rules regarding attribution.

Experts themselves continue to redefine digital plagiarism as it pertains to copyrights and intellectual property.

"It's still a controversial issue," Eodice said. "It's something we need to be paying attention to -- not because we're the academic police but because we need to understand why this happens."

Eodice said that in the next several weeks she would send out a short questionnaire asking for feedback about Turnitin.com from instructors who have used the service. She expects to send her recommendations to the provost's office in May for a final decision on whether to continue using Turnitin.com.

The next step, Eodice said, was to establish standard information about the service for instructors to include in each class' syllabus. That information gives students the tools they need to use legitimate references and frees them from the temptation to cheat.

"We need to be upfront with students; tell them you will be using the program and explain why," Eodice said. "Students want to know someone is paying attention to their writing."