6 ms·

As an anecdote, I'm teaching my first class this semester, and had a similar-ish experience, but with a much worse outcome for the students. To avoid this issue

by alextp 16y ago

As an anecdote, I'm teaching my first class this semester, and had a similar-ish experience, but with a much worse outcome for the students. To avoid this issue of people not knowing how the test is going to look like (and hence not knowing how to study for it), I decided to make two versions of each test question (and each question focuses on a simple part of the material that I want them to take home) and randomly assign each version of a question either to the actual test or to a practice test that I give them out a week or so before the actual test and then solve the practice test in front of them, clearly stating what I do and don't expect them to do. Now, in the first test they did well, but in the second test a significant fraction of the class (like 60+%) just wrote in their tests _my_ answers to the practice questions, and some argued that since there was some similarity they should get half credit or something. My reaction was, and still is, wtf?

Tycho 16y ago
My teacher for the ASP.NET class said he used to make the link to the 'final test' live/unprotected early in the term, as if by mistake (the tests were online and performed at workstations), but uploading a paper which wasn't the actual test and only changing it on test day. I don't know if he was joking but it cracked me up. I remember when the Turnitin.com plagiarism detection system was introduced to us in a lecture, some audibly worried students at the front had the gall to ask if they could submit their essays in handwritten form.
- JimmyL 16y ago
  Turnitin was just being brought online at my university while I was there, and there were some interesting (university) Senate cases about it - in particular, one student who refused to submit his final exam to it for various reasons was failed. He then appealed it, and in the end won (and got it marked without submitting it). When I left the school - and things may have changed since then - the deal was that for classes that used Turnitin you either had to submit your paper to them, or you had to submit multiple drafts of your paper (with notes and edits in them) and be open to an oral exam and discussion on any part of it, which seems like a fair compromise. Personally, if I had been in a class that used it (or in a field where we regularly wrote papers), I wouldn't have submitted my papers to it. Arguments aside about how it poisons the feeling of trust (which I think are somewhat valid), I don't like that Turnitin makes its money off my work without my getting any of the action. The value of their product is dependent on getting a copy of my papers, so they clearly have some value. If that's the case, why should I be forced to give it to them for free?
  - Tycho 16y ago
    Yes there's something not quite satisfactory about handing over your IP to Turnitin with little choice in the matter. I think in the end though I concluded that for honest students like us the pros outweigh the cons. I'm so sick of plagiarists in higher education. Ironically Turnitin ended up costing me dearly - it shows your marker a percentage of how much of your essay consists of quotations. I was penalised for breaching the maximum threshold of original content to citation, my grade capped at 59/100. But I doubt the marker would have realised otherwise, because it was a well written report (about database copyright) that flowed naturally; I simply included longish quotations from my sources to make things clearer. Being told to 'learn how to paraphrase' rankles to this day. Argh. Maybe I can have the last laugh by making it my glorious blogging debut...

by alextp 16y ago

Tycho 16y ago

My teacher for the ASP.NET class said he used to make the link to the 'final test' live/unprotected early in the term, as if by mistake (the tests were online and performed at workstations), but uploading a paper which wasn't the actual test and only changing it on test day. I don't know if he was joking but it cracked me up. I remember when the Turnitin.com plagiarism detection system was introduced to us in a lecture, some audibly worried students at the front had the gall to ask if they could submit their essays in handwritten form.

JimmyL 16y ago
Turnitin was just being brought online at my university while I was there, and there were some interesting (university) Senate cases about it - in particular, one student who refused to submit his final exam to it for various reasons was failed. He then appealed it, and in the end won (and got it marked without submitting it). When I left the school - and things may have changed since then - the deal was that for classes that used Turnitin you either had to submit your paper to them, or you had to submit multiple drafts of your paper (with notes and edits in them) and be open to an oral exam and discussion on any part of it, which seems like a fair compromise. Personally, if I had been in a class that used it (or in a field where we regularly wrote papers), I wouldn't have submitted my papers to it. Arguments aside about how it poisons the feeling of trust (which I think are somewhat valid), I don't like that Turnitin makes its money off my work without my getting any of the action. The value of their product is dependent on getting a copy of my papers, so they clearly have some value. If that's the case, why should I be forced to give it to them for free?
- Tycho 16y ago
  Yes there's something not quite satisfactory about handing over your IP to Turnitin with little choice in the matter. I think in the end though I concluded that for honest students like us the pros outweigh the cons. I'm so sick of plagiarists in higher education. Ironically Turnitin ended up costing me dearly - it shows your marker a percentage of how much of your essay consists of quotations. I was penalised for breaching the maximum threshold of original content to citation, my grade capped at 59/100. But I doubt the marker would have realised otherwise, because it was a well written report (about database copyright) that flowed naturally; I simply included longish quotations from my sources to make things clearer. Being told to 'learn how to paraphrase' rankles to this day. Argh. Maybe I can have the last laugh by making it my glorious blogging debut...