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The use of Turnitin without a broad strategy for fostering academic integrity may be counterproductive to achieving that end. In general, instances of academic dishonesty can be reduced when faculty build trust with students, discuss why academic integrity is important, and announce their plans to deter and detect acts of dishonesty (1). Turnitin can help send a strong message that academic integrity matters and that dishonesty will not be ignored. However, to avoid undermining trust, instructors are encouraged to give students the help they need to avoid plagiarism, to become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of Turnitin, to know why they are using it in their classes, and to explain all of this to their students (see the tips below for guidance on these topics).
If you submit a student's work without his or her knowledge, you may be in violation of FERPA regulations if the work contains the student's name, student id number, or other personally identifiable information. However, if you create a Turnitin assignment in Course Site then you are not violating student privacy because students will have submitted the work voluntarily (3). It is also recommended that you inform students that you are using Turnitin and why.
The use of Turnitin alone is not an adequate strategy for deterring plagiarism. Instructors are encouraged to clarify plagiarism policies frequently, to choose course materials and design assignments that diminish the likelihood of plagiarism, and to build in frequent opportunities to check students’ progress on their assignments. For detailed advice on each of these topics, see “Designing Research Paper Assignments: Characteristics of Effective Assignments" and see "Promoting Academic Integrity in Written Assignments".
Turnitin does not teach students how to use source material appropriately, nor will it teach correct citation conventions or standards of evidence.
Turnitin identifies text that matches text found in other documents, but it cannot differentiate between a document that uses source material correctly and one that contains plagiarized material. A Similarity Index will indicate the percentage of matching text, and Similarity Reports highlight matching text even if the matching text is correctly cited and appropriately used in the submitted assignment. When viewing a report, you can choose to ‘exclude quoted’ material. Doing so will calculate a new Similarity Score and Report without text that is surrounded by quotation marks; however, this still will not identify whether the citation is correct. Such decisions require interpretation by the instructor (or, in the case of a draft, by the student).
Turnitin will not detect all instances of plagiarism. For example, it cannot match text that is found only in print documents and it cannot detect an original work that was not authored by the student who submits it (e.g., if student X submits an original paper that was written by student Y, Turnitin would report it as original work). Similarly, the software scans text, not ideas, so a paper that expresses a plagiarized idea using original language will not result in a match.
Turnitin is not the only tool available for detecting plagiarism. For advice on other strategies, consult with a Lehigh librarian.
Turnitin's new AI-detection tool is not a mature product. It may detect naive uses of, say, ChatGPT but more sophisticated students can defeat the tool. More importantly, it doesn't produce evidence that is definitive in showing that a student used AI tools to generate their writing. (4)
Experiences at Lehigh and at other universities show that, when used appropriately, students perceive Turnitin as a tool that encourages responsible use of materials, improves fairness, and helps prevent inadvertent acts of plagiarism. However, when used inappropriately, students perceive it as an expression of distrust and an intrusion of privacy. Read on for additional help using Turnitin.
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As we gather experience with the use of this tool at Lehigh, I hope you will ask questions when you have them and share your thoughts with your colleagues about what approaches work best. Feel free to contact the director of CITL or a member of your college's IT support team, your college's librarian if you have questions or need help. In this way, we can join our students in cultivating a spirit of academic integrity across our campus.
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(4) Fowler, G. A. (2023, June 2). Analysis | detecting AI may be impossible. that’s a big problem for teachers. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpostproquest.com/technology/2023/06/02/turnitin-ai-cheatin...docview/2821749925?accountid=12043&parentSessionId=JlGJwNnuapMIgHitdkZg7F6ukQ1MFteiUs8USXmpCsE%3D