Do you want to avoid plagiarism in academic activities? This startup discovered how to do

February 1, 2021
7 min read

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Turnitin is an online plagiarism prevention service that promotes academic integrity, effective assessment and feedback, and helps improve academic performance across all subjects and levels of education.

The company was founded in 1998 when four students from the University of California at Berkeley filed a petition to review student work.

The students had to present their projects and comment on each other, but these young people found that their peers had borrowed and copied their work. To put an end to this situation, they introduced this review tool in 2000.

Today, Turnitin is an ally in promoting original thinking and authentic learning by developing cutting-edge technologies that enable institutions to deter plagiarism, provide formative feedback, receive comprehensive reports and disseminate information. ” investigate academic misconduct. Today, the company serves more than 15,000 institutions around the world and is headquartered in Oakland, California, with international offices in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, Korea, India and all of Latin America.

How it works?

Turnitin uses advanced technology to perform various activities. The first is to check the correspondence and similarity between the texts. “A scenario is being written that we are comparing with databases on the Internet that have published articles, scientific journals and the work of other students. Likewise, we have additional technology to determine authorship and verify that these are the student’s own words and works, ”says Catalina Londoño, the company’s professional and educational services manager for Latin America. They also have the technology to assess student work.

Complete and remote assessment

Gradescopio en Turnitin Tool to ease the burden on teachers. “It’s a way to collect information, examine it and digitize it. After carrying out a transparent and rapid assessment of the students, then checking the performance of the students in the activities that we assess, ”explains Londoño.

Gradescope strengthens the entire assessment process, works digitally and even with the help of artificial intelligence to aggregate student responses. It also cuts assessment time by up to 80% and offers advanced learning statistics. This means that the one doing the assessment is not the machine but the teacher, but the teacher helps them to group the work. The use of dynamic rubrics for evaluation and the flexibility of the tool promote transparent, rapid and qualitative evaluation.

The teachers’ experience has been positive, as is the case with Rómulo Chumacero, associate professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Chile, who explains to his students how he uses the tools.

“With the Turnitin Similarity Checker, I can quickly and completely verify student submitted work and compare it with databases containing documents from around the world,” a statement from Chimacero said.

“Gradescope was the most pleasant surprise I have ever had when it comes to digital tools. It’s a tool that allows you to design and edit reviews from an easy-to-use platform. It allows the same standards to be applied to all student assessments, it is very flexible in terms of the type of assessment to be carried out and it is very easy for students to use, ”he adds.

^{Courtesy of Turnitin}

Academic integrity

originality was launched in 2020 and uses similarity check technology. On this platform, thanks to DraHeaven32 Coach, students can self-manage and review the quality of their sources, their citation and referencing practices, observe the percentage of similarity of their works, and support their learning process, improve their reading habits. handwriting and quote.

With this tool, teachers have more time to ensure the quality of projects and academic integrity in their classes by providing them with relevant and timely information that allows them to identify opportunities for dialogue and to detect student mistakes that need more help.

Academic and educational trends

The interviewee says the pandemic has accelerated digitization in academia. “We have seen changes in the way our clients have implemented their services during a pandemic. We have seen changes in the way we use them. Obviously, we are forced to move around in this virtual world. It looks like digital will continue to be a trend that will endure until we feel comfortable returning to the classroom and the personal world. We will probably end up with a hybrid and well-globalized model, ”explains the executive.

Great thinkers from institutions in Latin America and around the world can see the opportunity to communicate and have the opportunity to share courses between institutions. “Certainly a mix can be done at any given time, and the idea is that integrity can also be guaranteed in these new virtual and ultimately hybrid versions, which seems to be the trend now,” adds the expert.

There are three important components to pursuing and promoting academic integrity, says Londoño. The first concerns institutional and government measures aimed at promoting the integrity of good practices, the second concerns the educational tools that the teacher uses with the student in his daily work; and the third is the technology to blend these three elements in such a way that the promotion of academic integrity complements all the ingredients.

From Mexico to Latin America

Today the society has a growing number of higher education institutions, an average of 15,000 worldwide and over 34 million students worldwide. Turnitin supports schools and enables teachers to effectively assess and protect the reputation of schools.

The most famous clients in Mexico are: Editorial UNAM, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Universidad de Monterrey, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Universidad Anáhuac.

Turnitin’s main and largest office in Latin America is located in Mexico, where a dedicated Latin American team serves the Mexican and Spanish markets.