Zoë Devlin & Clare Wiggins

Katy Mann

Develop your academic writing with

Turnitin

The University of York

Skills gaps in student cohort

On-line sources

Citation

Paraphrase

Common knowledge

The principles of the project at York

Formative Self-directed

Supported space

Sustainable

The process: 1 hour workshop

Presentation

& uploadTest /

evaluation

Support site & confidential

blog

Scaffold approach

Project phases

• Drop-in workshops, self-selecting students

• Primarily international students• Five academic cohorts • Delivered by academic skills officer

Phase 1:Pilot

(Feb – Sept 2010)

• Departments invited to participate• 18 depts agreed (30 cohorts)• Greater mix of students• Drop-in workshops continued• Delivered by postgrads who teach

Phase 2:Roll-out

(Oct 2010 – March 2011)

Evaluation – test results

84% correct answers after one

hour’s training

No difference between the 2 project phases

Some variation between academic depts

Evaluation survey

“I feel confident about interpreting the

originality report from Turnitin”:

88% agree / strongly agree

No difference between the 2 project phases, but variations between academic departments

“I have received enough information

about using Turnitin to develop my academic

writing”:

96% agree / strongly agree

Students commented in evaluation

“Great and ingenious application – catch me red-handed. It is good to know that I should go back and re-write.”“Great idea to introduce this tool to all students, especially to foreign (sic) who still learn “academic” English. Well delivered short course. Perfect length.” (International student)

+ “Useful to have a session to explain –probably could have figured it out just with the ppt.”

“I think that two sessions could be better, because some people like me are a little bit slow to understand these tools :)”

(Mature student)

-

How do students use Turnitin?

70% students upload one draft

only

20% upload 2 drafts

10% upload several drafts

86% make no changes or only minor changes

1% made major changes

13% had a lot of matches but

made no changes

After using Turnitin do you feel that you:

After using Turnitin do you feel that you:

of

Sustainability

Turnitin licence: £944 + 60p per student

Workshop: PGWT = £26.75 ph

UG facilitators = £6.83 ph

To train 50 students = £54.07

Employability: skills for PGWTs and UG facilitators

Lessons learned

PGWT – select, train, shadow Group size Clarity on access to “submission

points” Greater department engagement /

presence Clarity on access to further help Sharing of Turnitin access with friends Length and content of test Avoid duplication with Academic

Integrity tutorial

What next?

Approved by University Teaching Committee, March 2011

Continue drop-in workshops

Evaluate submissions – tag, track and double mark

Semi-structured interviews with UG/ PG students

Distance Learning module being piloted and evaluated