A presentation from the "Docentendag" (Lecturer day) by Tiemen Nanninga and me on Turnitin. We have used Turnitin our lectures in several courses of our Urban Environmental Management Master track to check student submissions for plagiarism, for peer-review and to give clear and transparent feedback online via rubrics and built-in comment function. Turnitin was a great help for us in assessment in group and individual assignments, so we share here our experiences and our recommendations for further improvement.

1. Use of Turnitin for peer-review, submission
and assessment of assignments
What works and what does not work (yet)
10-12-2013, Tiemen Nanninga (ETE), Ingo Leusbrock
(ETE) and Annemarie Zijlmans (EDUsupport)
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3. Use of Turnitin for peer-review, submission
and assessment of assignments
What works and what does not work (yet)
10-12-2013, Tiemen Nanninga (ETE), Ingo Leusbrock
(ETE) and Annemarie Zijlmans (EDUsupport)
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4. Content
 Who are we?
 What is Turnitin?
 Our experiences
● Submission of assignments (Paper assignment)
● Peer review (PeerMark and PeerMark Questions)
● Assessment (Originality check and Rubric)
● Resubmission (Revision assignment)
 Pro‟s and Con‟s
 Recommendations
 Next steps
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5. Who are we?
 Tiemen Nanninga
● Environmental Technology (WUR), LeAF
● Education, New Sanitation,
Linking sanitation and agriculture
 Ingo Leusbrock
● Environmental Technology (WUR)
● Urban System Engineering, Sustainable
Technology Integration
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6. Our experiences - Background
 Master of Urban Environmental Management
 ETE-22806 („Principles‟)
● >70 students
● Individual assignment with originality check, peer
review, feedback, assessment and re-submission
 ETE-34306 („Closing cycles‟)
● >25 students
● Group assignment with originality check, feedback
and assessment
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7. Our challenges
 Lots of assignments
 Flexible and transparent grading
 Emailing large attachments
 Plagiarism check
 Quick assessment including useful feedback
 Calculation of grades based on multiple criteria
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8. What is Turnitin?
 Tool within Blackboard
● Submission of assignments
● Originality check, peer review, grading, feedback
and communication
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9. What can you do with Turnitin?
 Submission of assignments (Paper assignment)
 Peer review (PeerMark)
● PeerMark Questions
● Originality Check
 Assessment and Grading
● Originality Check
● Rubric
● Feedback and Comments
 Resubmission (Revision assignment)
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10. Submission of assignments
 Paper Assignment
 PeerMark Assignment
 Revision Assignment
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11. Paper Assignment
 It all starts here
 Submission of assignment for peer review and/ or
assessment
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12. Peer review (PeerMark)
 Use for peer review in groups of 6 students
● Submission, peer review, discuss results in groups
 Plagiarism check
 PeerMark questions
 No emailing
 Strict deadlines
 Easy monitoring „behind the scenes‟
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13. PeerMark Questions
 (small group) Peer
review
 Guidance through peer
review by customized
questions
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14. Assessment
 Online assessment of papers
● Originality check
● Rubric
● Comments
● QuickMarks
 Assessment by multiple examiners
● Simultaneous use is possible
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15. Originality check
 Always check!
● A high number
is not per se
plagiarism, and
vice versa
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16. Rubric
 Customizable rubric
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17. QuickMark and Comments
 QuickMark
comments
 In-text comments
 General comments
 Different
highlighting
colours
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18. Resubmission of assignments (Revision)
 Resubmission of assignments for assessment
● No overwriting over earlier submitted files
 Submission only allowed once!
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19. Libraries
 Libraries allow export of assessment tools from user to
user
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20. So, why Turnitin?
 Fully online
 Plagiarism check via originality check
 Grade Manager & Quick Mark Manager
 Rubrics
 Peer review
 Libraries for grade manager, rubrics and peer review
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21. Students: Pro‟s
 Nice and easy accessible tool
 Online
 Easy to use interface (PeerMark Questions)
 PeerMark worked well
 Visual plagiarism check
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22. Students: Con‟s
 No in-text changes possible (spelling and grammar)
● “Track changes”
 No downloading
 Setting a minimum number of words at „explanatory
questions‟ resulted in confusion
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23. Lecturers: Pro‟s
 Reduced organizational workload
● Submission
● Assessment and Feedback
 Peer review-positive experience for all
 Simple yet effective plagiarism check
 Joint review of lecturers possible in one document
 Transparent and constructive assessment
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24. Lecturers: Con‟s
 Needs time to learn
 Not always straight-forward and intuitive
● Help limited within Turnitin
● “Trial and error”
 Import / export files from / in standard formats is not
possible
 Not possible to see who has given a QuickMark (joint
review)
 Group making process for peer review
 New for students
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25. Students: Recommendations
 Make track changes within the text instead of only
comments. Especially for correcting spelling/ grammar
 Drop the minimum amount of words for feedback
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26. Lecturers: Recommendations
 Export / import feature(s) and options
 Allow editing of rubric after deleting assignments
 Offline feature to review with later syncing
 Link groups in BB to Turnitin
 Track changes for Revision Assignment
 Better/ clearer help manuals
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27. Next steps for us
 Use of BB and Turnitin in all courses
 Improve rubrics / transparency
 Use other functions of BB / Turnitin
 Dissemination of our knowledge
● Development of manual for use of Turnitin based on
our experiences
● Paper, video, website
● Interested? Let us know (letter of interest) so we
can secure funding and time!
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28. Questions?
Interested in Turnitin? Feel
free to contact us on:
tiemen.nanninga@wur.nl
ingo.leusbrock@wur.nl
annemarie.zijlmans@wur.nl
www.wageningenur.nl/ete
www.wageningenur.nl/esd
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