Besides screening term papers, some departments at Cal State Long Beach use Turnitin.com to check originality in graduate admission applications.
“I can’t speak for the other departments, but I use Turnitin a lot when looking at applications, since it catches more [plagiarized material] than I can at times,” said Elaine Frey, assistant economics professor. “It’s a win-win, since I could verify things easily.”
Others said they don’t need that extra step.
“To be honest, we use it on occasion,” said Cory Wright, assistant philosophy professor. “We usually just spot check applications if they’re on the borderline, but it’s usually very obvious and we have a group of experts, all of whom have post-baccalaureate degrees, that take a look at them. That, and if the student can’t write, they wouldn’t get accepted anyway.”
Wright does use Turnitin for his classes, however.
“I mean, there are things it can do that we can’t, with the algorithms and all, but there have been times when I’ve caught some things that it didn’t,” Wright said. “It’s obviously not perfect … just somewhat helpful.”
CSULB pays an average of $30,000 each year for Turnitin services, according to Leslie Kennedy, director of instructional technical support services.
“There’s no extra charge for students, but this price is based on the discount that is from the CSU system’s consolidation,” Kennedy said. “We don’t formally ask professors how effective Turnitin is, but it’s a given since it’s being used.”
Last year, there were 19 cases of plagiarism that were reported to the office of judicial affairs, and some of them were “definitely” related to Turnitin, according to Administrative Support Coordinator Mary Sanchez.
Students can expect to begin using additional services through Turnitin.
GradeMark, a product that allows professors to mark up papers directly via Turnitin, and PeerMark, a product that allows students to anonymously provide feedback for each others’ essays, are now officially included in CSULB’s license with Turnitin.
Still, students at CSULB will not be able to immediately use the tool.
Desire2Learn must first implement it with Beachboard, which can take a long time due to complex coding, according to Kennedy, who cannot estimate when PeerMark will be available.
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