Abstract
This is an attempt to investigate and evaluate students’ and faculty’s experiences and understanding to the strengths and limitations of anti-plagiarism software, specifically, Turnitin and how it could be used to promote academic integrity among engineering students. 50 engineering students and 20 professors were surveyed and interviewed. The paper argues that although Turnitin is widely used these days to tackle and minimize plagiarism practices, however cyber-plagiarism is increasing and the software might be inadequate in fighting such practice. The paper also questions the effectiveness and limitations of the software in relation to current practices. The findings revealed that most of the respondents perceive Turnitin positively; limitations of the software are not many and they believed that the software is effective in detecting and minimizing plagiarism incidents among their students’ papers. The study puts forward some recommendations which might help practitioners in minimizing plagiarism practices.
Highlights
Plagiarism has become a common phenomenon among students since the emergence of the internet and the influx of information technology round the globe
The analysis of item (7) revealed mixed responses as it showed that (45%) of the respondents 'agreed' that Turnitin has promoted originality in students papers, and (35) 'were not sure', and (25%) 'disagreed' with the statement. This is supported by Rolfe study in (2007) on students who used Turnitin and he found that the software formatively improved their abilities to rewrite their work; and they showed a reduction in the level of plagiarism that was because of poor paraphrasing Rolfe (2011, 704)
As for item (8), the results showed that (65%) of the faculty believed that Turnitin has helped their students to understand plagiarism in a better way, (35) were 'not sure', and no one 'disagreed' with the statement
Summary
Plagiarism has become a common phenomenon among students since the emergence of the internet and the influx of information technology round the globe. ''plagiarism of secondary sources'' occurs when a person gives references to original sources, and perhaps quotes them, but never looks them up, having obtained both from a secondary source-which is not cited (ibid).In addition, contract cheating could be one of the forms of plagiarism and defined ''as a form of academic dishonesty, where students contract out their coursework to writers or workers, usually found via the internet, in order to submit the purchased assignments as their own work' (Walker &Townley, 2012:27) Most these forms of plagiarism could be detected by anti-plagiarism softwares
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