Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Turnitin AI Detection Feature Reviews More Than 65 Million Papers

OAKLAND, Calif. – Today,  Turnitin announced that more than 65 million papers have been reviewed since the April launch of its new feature that detects similarities to AI writing. The company also announced that of those 65 million papers, over 2.1 million – 3.3 percent – have been flagged as having at least 80 percent AI writing present. Nearly 6.7 million – 10.3 percent – have over 20 percent AI writing present. Tracking the overall detection rate illustrates that generative AI has made its way into classrooms, however, whether this is acceptable or not is determined by educators themselves. 

“In just over three months, Turnitin’s new AI detection feature is being used widely and it is giving educators data they have asked for since ChatGPT first became free to the public in November 2022,” said Annie Chechitelli, chief product officer at Turnitin. “Since the release, nearly 98 percent* of Turnitin institutions have AI writing detection enabled within their Turnitin workflow in at least one of their active accounts.” 

Chechitelli added, “Sharing usage and indication rates is one way that we can help improve understanding of the presence and use of generative AI in their teaching and learning practices. Given the urgency expressed by educators about these challenges and the public’s interest in AI text creation and AI text detection, we are committed to sharing these insights so that we can all begin to understand the trends that are currently shaping education.”…Read More

Can technology help schools prevent AI-based cheating?

Since the public release of ChatGPT took the world by storm last fall, many educators have worried about students using the highly advanced, artificially intelligent chatbot for cheating on school assignments by passing off AI-generated work as their own. But if AI can be used to produce written content, can it also be used to determine whether a piece of writing was created by AI or by a human being?

That’s what Turnitin is hoping to do with a new feature the company has added to its existing writing tools. Beginning April 4, all Turnitin products—including Turnitin Feedback Studio (TFS), TFS with Originality, Turnitin Originality, Turnitin Similarity, SimCheck, Originality Check, and Originality Check+—will include AI detection capabilities for existing users.

Turnitin began working on detection capabilities for GPT3, the underlying technology upon which many AI writing applications are based, nearly two years before the release of ChatGPT.…Read More

Illuminate Education Partners with Turnitin to Provide Assessment Resources for Remote Learning

Illuminate Education, a leading K-12 student performance solution, is partnering with  Turnitin, a leading provider of academic integrity and assessment solutions. Together, they will equip teachers with knowledge and resources to encourage academic integrity and promote effective assessment creation and delivery in remote learning environments. In partnering, Illuminate Education and Turnitin will work to increase educators’ knowledge, use, and application of assessment resources and tools.

“As remote learning continues across the U.S., it’s important that teachers are able to successfully evaluate student growth and promote quality formative assessment creation and delivery,” said Christine Willig, CEO at Illuminate Education. “This includes teaching students the importance of academic authenticity and integrity, and we are eager to partner with Turnitin to achieve this.”

Illuminate Education offers solutions that help educators assess learning, identify needs, align targeted supports, and monitor growth for each and every student.…Read More

The top 10 ways college students plagiarize

Students who knew their papers would be reviewed by Turnitin software were not less likely to cheat, according to research.

When it comes to plagiarizing, students who use the unethical shortcut seem to be all in: Copying and pasting a research paper word for word is now the most common form of plagiarism.

Those findings, along with the ten most common forms of plagiarism in higher education, were detailed in a national ranking of plagiarism incidents released this month by Turnitin, an online company that makes software designed to detect cheating in homework assignments and research papers.…Read More

Social websites are latest sources for plagiarized material

Harrick advised demonstrating how easily students can be caught plagiarizing at the start of the school year.

Plagiarism is going social, according to Turnitin.com, which found that one-third of plagiarized material in student papers can be traced to social networking, content sharing, or question-and-answer websites.

Turnitin.com offers software that checks student papers against a vast database of prior works and the internet at large, looking for matches that can indicate possible plagiarism. An analysis of the top sources of matched content flagged by the software reveals a significant shift in the last few years, the company says—from so-called “term paper mills” to social sites and homework help sites.…Read More

Engaging students while avoiding plagiarism

Turnitin helped one school crack down on student plagiarism.
Turnitin helped one school crack down on student plagiarism.

Mt. Olive High School is a large, diverse public school in New Jersey that experienced a unique problem with plagiarism. Student collaboration at times led to paper-sharing among students—and administrators and educators knew they needed a system to check student assignments for plagiarism.

Danielle Kulawiak teaches 112 students at Mt. Olive High. Many are in her honors and college prep language arts courses. “What we were finding at our school was very little plagiarism from the internet—it was from our own students sharing papers,” Kulawiak says. “Now we require all papers to be submitted through Turnitin.”…Read More

‘Academic fraud’ filtering hopes to crack down on plagiarism

Technology companies hope to curb students' access to term paper sites and crack down on plagiarism.
Some education technology companies hope to curb students' access to term paper sites and crack down on plagiarism.

For years, schools have struggled to crack down on web-savvy students who purchase or download term papers online, and a new option from OpenDNS aims to make plagiarism that much harder.

The free internet security service launched an Academic Fraud Filtering option earlier this year after the company’s users suggested OpenDNS create a filter for term paper sites.…Read More

Turnitin used by all universities in Singapore

iParadigms, creator of the plagiarism prevention program Turnitin, has announced that its software has been adopted by all four universities in Singapore, PR Newswire reports. Turnitin is used across the universities’ curricula and is available to tens of thousands of educators and students. At the National University of Singapore, where Turnitin has been used since 2002, Associate Professor Brian Farrell in the Department of History says: “In my own experience with Turnitin, I have found it to be useful in doing four important things: categorically exposing crude and massive plagiarism; providing a graphic illustration of general student practices regarding the use of sources and the composition of research essays; providing a graphic teaching aid to instruct students on the problem of cut and paste; and sending a general signal about plagiarism, academic culture, and responsibilities.” More than a half-million educators and millions of students worldwide now use Turnitin, iParadigms says, and the program is available in 10 languages…

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