Seminar for use of Turnitin software/site by AGSB Lecturers and students to combat plagiarism

'Quamplurimi et quam aptissimi" (As many as possible of the very best)

Ateneo Professional Schools
Makati City
November 10, 2015

"Ordinary artists copy, GREAT ARTISTS STEAL"

Yesterday, at Room 213, a computer room, we AGSB held an orientation for   Lecturers:   Ed Zaragosa, Dr. George Fong, Dr. Mars Balgos, Ed Legazpi, Larry Grey (only 5) and two IT staff:   Mac and Renan. of Turn It In  What was odd in the attendance is that the elderly professors were the ones interested. (and still very few)

Uses of turn it in

What is turn it in?   It is web based software for TESTING PAPER SUBMISSION ON STUDENT ON THE FOLLOWING:

1.  Originality
2.  Peer paper comparison
3.  Grades.

This would seem to discourage and verify the nagging questions that enter our minds as lecturers as to whether the student plagiarized or not.   Plagiarism, when committed by students is subject to action by disciplinary board, that may eventually lead to dismissal  (I have this suspicion on papers that seemed to be good to be true, and unbelievably perfect to have been written by the student)

Types of plagiarism:



Plagiarism can take on many forms:

1.  Passing off somebody's work as ones own;

2.  Using previous paper in other subjects as a new paper for another subject;

3.  Copying verbatim others work and using it as ones own

4.  Hybrid  -  copy pasting work on line and passing it off as ones own.

5.   Paper with copied materials without attribution

6.  Ramble/switching -  Paragraphs, sentences from original manuscript are switched/ rambled (as in jai alai  or race horse daily double bet) and passed as ones original work

7.  Paraphrase - an original work is paraphrased using modified words and sentences but the thought and the organization are that of the original manuscript

Plagiarism is frowned upon, is a crime for submission of academic work, publication, and in journalism.  It is widespread and pervasive.  I have seen cases in Strama and even for small papers that reached the office of the Dean that have been plagiarized

Some changes to be brought about by Turn it in:

1.  As of now, the School through the library has subscribed to turn it in.  Beginning new semester for Regis, the Turn it in will be utilized.  It will be eventually used for MM and Standard Programs when their new semester starts.  There are many schools in MM and provinces who have subscribed to Turnitin

2.  Initially only the Lecturers will be enrolled in the program.   Then the students will be too enrolled.  The Turn it in is charged per user and thus the costs must be contained.

3.  The start and end of the semester, the assignments and their deadlines will be defined.  It will mean more work for the Lecturer.  Thus a deadline becomes a real deadline, and the computer/software puts limits on flexibility of deadlines.

4.  The Lecturers will have to train and study harder how to implement this system.  A follow up is needed to check whether the Lecturers have mastered Turn it in.

5.  Some guidelines will have to be set, as to what is the parameter for plagiarism.  (As per Ms San Pedro, other Philippine schools using the system has set it to be 20% and below, otherwise, the student can be considered plagiarist.

6  Student by default, especially those who have privacy issues agree to have the paper uploaded, checked by the plagiarism/originality checker and have the paper archived at both local and world wide repository for future checking

BUT DEFINITELY, ONE THING FOR SURE, THE DAYS OF THE PLAGIARISTS ARE NUMBERED.

I all ready tried one free plagiarism site:   Plagtracker to test a paper which looked so good and it turned out to be 76% unoriginal!