1. Turnitin.com

Although technology has made it easier for students to cheat, it has also made it easier to catch the cheaters. Durham College has purchased a license for the plagiarism detection service, Turnitin.com, which enables a professors and students to check written work for plagiarism. Using this service, the professor or student can upload one single sentence or an entire paper into the Turnitin.com database.

According to Turnitin.com, it has a database of over 40 million student papers, more than 12 billion web pages, and 10,000 newspapers, magazines, books and scholarly journals. Within minutes, it compares the student's paper against all these resources and sends a report back to the instructor and/or student on the integrity of the paper.

It should be noted that once a paper has been submitted into the Turnitin.com database, it will reside in the Turnitin.com database for up to five years.

To use Turnitin.com, instructors must include the official Turnitin.com statement (link opens in new window) in their course syllabi. By including that paragraph, Durham College assumes that all students have consented to the use of the tool. In order for students to submit to Turnitin.com, professors must send students the assignment enrollment information and password. Professors can require students to upload their papers into Turnitin.com and have: 

1. the originality report sent directly to the professor (default setting)
2. the originality report sent to the professor and the student with the option of having the student correct any plagiarism errors and then resubmit the paper
3. the originality report sent to both the student and professor with no option of rewrites.

It should be noted that students have the right to refuse to have their papers submitted into the Turnitin.com database. They wrote the papers, therefore, they own them. At the time the work is assigned, students must inform their professors that they are not giving permission to have their work submitted to Turnitin.com AND sign the Turnitin.com Assignment Cover Sheet (link opens in new window). The student should meet with the professor to determine what steps would be required to ensure the authenticity of the student's work. This may include handing in all copies of any resources referred to in the paper as well as any notes, drafts and other development writing of the paper. The requirements must be determined with the professor at the time the work is assigned, NOT on the due date.

Proper citation and referencing methods should be made clear to the students as part of the requirements for the assignment.

For review, the steps the student needs to follow to decline the use of Turnitin.com:

• When work is assigned, the student informs the professor that they will not give their permission to have the paper submitted to Turnitin.com
• Student discusses with the professor how they will prove the originality of their work
• Student keep copies of all documents, articles, notes and drafts used in the development of their paper
• When they hand in the paper, they attach the Turnitin.com Assignment Cover Sheet
• The paper is accompanied with the required documents

For detailed instructions on the use of Turnitin.com, read the instructions at: http://turnitin.com/static/training.html

Instructors requiring access to the Durham College Turnitin.com license should contact the C.A.F.E. at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it