5 ms·

As someone who teaches degree level content to apprentices, I definitely think these tools have value. I know that until very recently my current institution h

As someone who teaches degree level content to apprentices, I definitely think these tools have value. I know that until very recently my current institution has not bothered with such a tool and I saw with my own eyes that quite obvious (to me) plagiarism was rampant and that the already overburdened assignment markers were not catching these instances. By moving to an automated tool, our students were immediately put on notice that such behaviour would not be acceptable. That said, I do still hear worrying comments from my colleagues (“what number is too much?” is I’m afraid a common question) - but I can clearly see the change in student behaviour - so I don’t think this is such a bad thing. Yes, markers do still need to watch for plagiarism - and there are of course other types of plagiarism that these tools can’t usually deal with (ghost-written essays being a common talking point these days), but just because a tool may be misused or may be misunderstood, it certainly doesn’t necessarily mean it is all bad.

ghaff 8y ago
I don't have any real experience with these tools but for writing (as opposed to some types of code, especially well-defined algorithms), the odds that two pieces of writing are going to be highly similar to each other by chance are pretty tiny. Sure, the same quotes from another source may be used here and there (and hopefully cited). And there may be some rote definition or other short text lifted from Wikipedia, etc. that maybe doesn't rise to the level of requiring a footnote. But if any sections of text longer than a line or two aren't substantially different, something is going on.
hopler 8y ago
Why don't you skip all this nonsense and just give grades only for exams? This is how colleges were run before they turned into remedial high schools. If your course needs a big final paper, you don't grade the paper, you grade a defense of the paper, that shows they really know the material behind the paper. All the work before the final is just practice and grades don't matter.

ghaff 8y ago

I don't have any real experience with these tools but for writing (as opposed to some types of code, especially well-defined algorithms), the odds that two pieces of writing are going to be highly similar to each other by chance are pretty tiny. Sure, the same quotes from another source may be used here and there (and hopefully cited). And there may be some rote definition or other short text lifted from Wikipedia, etc. that maybe doesn't rise to the level of requiring a footnote. But if any sections of text longer than a line or two aren't substantially different, something is going on.

hopler 8y ago

Why don't you skip all this nonsense and just give grades only for exams? This is how colleges were run before they turned into remedial high schools. If your course needs a big final paper, you don't grade the paper, you grade a defense of the paper, that shows they really know the material behind the paper. All the work before the final is just practice and grades don't matter.