We have all been there. The moment that you realize a student’s work is not their own. They didn’t cite correctly or simply turned in another student's work. How can we turn this situation around into valuable teaching and learning opportunities? In the August 2019 Faculty Focus “How to Turn a Check for Plagiarism Into a Teachable Moment.” written by Amel Ben Abdesslem, Ph.D. we learn some helpful tips.
Use the Turnitin Feedback Studio to help check for similarity. Turnitin provides a similarity score on submitted papers which helps to decipher if further investigation is required.
If the score is higher than 40%, send a personal email to the student to inform them of the situation and provide additional resources for referencing and paraphrasing.
Provide a chance to resubmit after reviewing the resources provided. Most students will not purposely plagiarize. They may not understand simple citations or references. A quick reminder with a chance to resubmit will help them understand for the next time.
If the score is still high after the re-submission, send a detailed report to the student that shows areas of concern through a personalized email. Use this as a teachable moment to help your student increase their skills and understanding on appropriate citing and paraphrasing.
Together we can create better understanding and learning through these teachable moments. Students learn by doing and mistakes are opportunities for learning. To learn more about the Turnitin tool you can visit the GSC IT page.
