The Use of Turnitin for Examinations: Information for Examiners

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1 The Use of Turnitin for Examinations: Information for Examiners Oxford University Computing Services (OUCS) provides technical advice on the use of Turnitin. You can request an instructor login to the direct Turnitin service from in order to set up your examination and enable submissions. Turnitin searches for matches between students work and a large, but nevertheless limited, reference set (internet, electronic books and newspapers, and material previously submitted by other students): no software can detect all instances of copying. Whether the matches that are found amount to plagiarism and are in breach of the regulations still requires examiners to exercise their judgement. The software can be configured to ignore text within references and citations, and text delimited by quotation marks. For examinations Turnitin, can be used in three main ways, as set out below. The third of these, which involves submission solely by electronic means, will be available at present only where it is current practice (i.e. the EMBA and MBA). Please decide which method you would prefer, then draft the instructions that you intend giving to your candidates and any forms that they will need to sign. Please submit those drafts to the Proctors for their approval. For your assistance, generic information is available on request from the Proctors as Word documents and is posted on the Proctors web-site: (see Electronic screening for plagiarism and Use of Turnitin ). The additional specific information needed for any particular examination should be minimal. If your candidates are submitting both hard-copy and electronic copy, they must sign a declaration that the two versions of their work have identical content. Work submitted to Turnitin for examinations is to be identified by Candidate Number and not by name. Students must be given instructions NOT to put their name anywhere on their electronic submission, e.g. front page, header, electronic file name etc. Whichever of the following methods you use, candidates must keep an electronic copy of their work until the examination is completed. Whichever method you use, an instructor needs to request a Turnitin instructor account from OUCS and set up the class, assignment and class list (using candidate numbers) on Turnitin in advance. (See Submission of electronic files and access to Turnitin later in this document.) Main modes of use of Turnitin in examinations 1 Electronic and hard copies Students submit a hard-copy to the department for marking, AND: a. Students submit their work over the internet for screening by Turnitin, OR b. Students submit their work on CD or by to faculty staff, or via the WebLearn Assignments tool. Faculty staff intervene where necessary to anonymise the electronic file and submit it to Turnitin. The Turnitin Quick Submit function can be used to submit one or a whole folder of submissions. The examiners (or administrators) log-on to download the Turnitin report on textual matching (the Turnitin class or WebLearn Assignment must be set up so that the report is available only to the examiners and not students). The examiners will need to review a random sample of the submissions held on Turnitin to check for students who may have submitted different versions of their work for screening and for marking. Updated by OUCS in discussion with the Proctors Office 6 August 2010 Page 1 of 6

2 2 Self-certification Students submit their work electronically for screening, and the students themselves obtain the report from Turnitin. The students then submit hard-copy of their work to the examiners for marking along with a print-out of the first two pages of the originality report. This has two obvious advantages over other methods: it greatly reduces the administrative burden on staff; if they wish, the students can submit to the examiners a justification of any matches that were detected (experience is needed to establish whether that is useful). As in method 1, the examiners will need to review a random sample of the electronic submissions held on Turnitin in order to ensure that they are identical to the hard-copy submitted for marking. 3 Electronic submission only Students use the internet to submit their work to Turnitin, and they do not submit hard-copy. This method will be available at present only where submission solely by electronic means is current practice. For most examinations, this would require a fundamental change from present policies; careful planning is required and permission from the Proctors must be obtained. In this method, the markers have to download the work over the internet and print the submissions themselves. Until that has been done, the examiners do not have the security of possessing hard-copy. The candidate cannot be held fully responsible for the layout of the printed copy that the examiners mark (some courses require papers to be submitted in PDF format to ensure accurate layout). The advantage is that only one copy is submitted by the students, and that is used for both screening and marking. As in method 1, the Turnitin report is seen only by the examiners. The Originality Report produced by Turnitin The report shows the percentage of the candidate s text that matches other sources known to Turnitin. In the case of matches to published sources or to material submitted by other candidates in the same examination, the examiner can see the matching text and its immediate context in the source. Matches to unpublished material submitted by other institutions are measured and highlighted, but that source text can only be seen after contacting the other institution for the author s permission. Submission of electronic files and access to Turnitin The Help Desk at OUCS (and two members of the WebLearn team) are designated as University Administrators for Turnitin. On receipt of a request via turnitin@oucs.ox.ac.uk, OUCS will set up an instructor account for a particular staff member (e.g. examiners or their secretaries, or for College tutors wishing to screen tutorial work for formative purposes). This instructor is then required to log in to Turnitin direct ( and set up a class, assignment and class list (using candidate numbers if anonymity is required) on Turnitin in advance of the anticipated submissions. Anyone (students or staff) submitting material for screening will post it to such a class in Turnitin. Submissions are stamped with date and time. The examiner or tutor can obtain reports on material submitted to their own site and can see the full text of all that material. If a match is found to material previously submitted within Oxford but to the site belonging to another examiner or tutor (for instance, if collusion has occurred between students working for similar yet distinct examinations), then the University Administrator can obtain the full text without approaching the students concerned. Where possible individual students will be contacted to give permission to release their papers to other institutions, but this may not always be practicable. Training and support 1 The Turnitin site ( click on Support) offers detailed support for instructors and students in the form of Quickstart Guides, User Manuals and Narrated Videos Updated by OUCS in discussion with the Proctors Office 6 August 2010 Page 2 of 6

3 2 OUCS offers a lunch time session once per term called Plagiarism: the use of WebLearn and Turnitin. Book a place at 3 There is a WebLearn site which offers various information and resources on Plagiarism Support: See Annexes attached, information for candidates (also available on the Proctors Office web-site): Electronic Screening for Plagiarism in Examinations Use of Turnitin Updated by OUCS in discussion with the Proctors Office 6 August 2010 Page 3 of 6

4 Electronic Screening for Plagiarism in Examinations The University has introduced the use of Turnitin software to increase the effectiveness and fairness of the screening of work submitted for examinations. The software will compare candidates submitted work with a wide range of material (both published and unpublished), and it will also compare the work of different candidates to test for collusion. All examination candidates whose work is to be subject to routine screening will be notified and advised about how and when to submit an electronic copy of their work. The details for submission may differ between subjects, and so candidates should follow the instructions given by their examiners. The Educational Policy and Standards Committee has provided information on plagiarism and its avoidance: SIX IMPORTANT POINTS: PLEASE READ 1. All candidates whose work is to be screened by Turnitin will be asked to sign a declaration confirming that they have read the notice* on the Use of Turnitin, and they agree to the screening and use of their work as described in that notice. (The notice refers to exceptional circumstances where exemption from screening might be approved.) 2. All subjects currently requiring submission of hard-copy will continue to do so. Note that the published deadlines will be applied to the submission of hard-copy: penalties will apply in cases of late submission. 3. Whenever both hard-copy and electronic copy are submitted, the two copies must have identical content. 4. The examiners will be notified of the extent of any textual matches discovered by Turnitin. The examiners will consider, for instance, whether any text that a candidate has copied from elsewhere is properly identified and the source duly acknowledged. If they are not satisfied and suspect a breach of the regulations has taken place, they will report the matter to the Proctors. 5. The software detects both exact copying and paraphrasing. 6. The regulations relating to plagiarism and collusion are sections 3 6 in the Proctors Regulations for Conduct in Examinations, which can be seen at * The notice Use of Turnitin can be seen at: Updated by OUCS in discussion with the Proctors Office 6 August 2010 Page 4 of 6

5 Notice for Candidates Use of Turnitin 1. Candidates will be required to certify in writing that they have read this notice and that they agree to their work being screened and used as described here. 2. Candidates will be given instructions by their examiners about how to submit their work. Electronic copy will be required in addition to hard-copy (except for those examinations where submission solely by electronic means was established before the academic year ). Students may be required to use Turnitin to screen their work themselves, in which case, they will be told how to submit their work directly to Turnitin, as well as a print-out of the Turnitin Originality Report to the examiners. 3. All candidates submitting hard-copy of their work will be asked to sign a declaration that the electronic material that they have screened or that they are providing for screening is identical in content with the hard-copy. Checks will be made of such declarations and dishonesty will be treated as an attempt to cheat in the examination. 4. The Administrative Regulations concerning the handing in of examination material will apply equally to the submission of electronic copy. In particular, candidates will be responsible for submitting their electronic copy as required by the examiners, and, having made any submission, they may not withdraw it or substitute it with a revised version without the consent of the Proctors. 5. Students will be responsible for retaining an electronic copy of their submitted work until the examination is concluded. 6. Work submitted for screening by Turnitin software is submitted to an American company iparadigm. Copyright of the work is not reassigned by such submission: copyright remains wholly with the original owner. 7. The submitted material is retained in confidence on iparadigm s servers and will be used as part of the reference set against which subsequent submissions to the system are screened. This offers protection to candidates against other people subsequently copying their work (the file on iparadigm s server is encrypted and cannot itself be used as source for plagiarism). Any third party outside Oxford University submitting material that matches a student s work is told only the extent of the match and Oxford s contact details. If approached, Oxford University will attempt to contact its student about the matter. The contents of a student s original work will not be revealed to a third party outside Oxford without express permission from the student concerned. 8. Material submitted to Turnitin for examination purposes will be identified by the student s candidate number: personal details such as candidates names will not be used and must not appear anywhere on the student s electronic submission. 9. At any time after completion of the examination, any candidate wishing to have his or her material removed from the system should apply to the relevant Faculty Office. Arrangements will be made in such cases to delete the submitted material. It is hoped that, to maximise the usefulness of screening and to protect candidates from having their own work plagiarised, such requests for deletion will be kept to a minimum. Updated by OUCS in discussion with the Proctors Office 6 August 2010 Page 5 of 6

6 10. In some cases, commercial sensitivity (or other such reason) might mean that a candidate s work cannot, or should not, be transmitted over the internet for screening by Turnitin. In such cases, the candidate should apply in writing to the Proctors with the support of his or her supervisor (in the case of a research degree) or of his or her College (in the case of any taught course) for dispensation from electronic screening. The examiners will be notified of any such cases so that they can use other tests for plagiarism at their discretion. Updated by OUCS in discussion with the Proctors Office 6 August 2010 Page 6 of 6