Janet, where is the "excellent site that teaches students about pagiarism... that provides students with a certificate". I would love access to a site like that. Teaching students how to avoid plaigarism is very important to me. Mary Ann Dowdell -----Original Message----- From: Nepkie, Janet ([log in to unmask]) Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2003 4:26 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Turnitin Testimonial Hi, Jim, Thanks for sharing Dr. Hendley's comments. As you know, I have strong objection to forcing students to use Turnitin.com because Turnitin retains the student's paper in perpetuity to be used for commercial purposes. I have many fewer objections, however, since I found two items: 1) An example of effective "opt-out" language for students who decline to allow their papers to be sent to Turnitin, and 2) An excellent site that teaches students about plagiarism, correct citation and paraphrase techniques and that provides students with a certificate (that they must turn it to me) upon successful completion of the 30-minute training module on plagiarism. I still have very basic questions about the cost of Turnitin. We have finite resources at our college and if we buy a license to use Turnitin.com, it seems to me that we need to have realistic discussion about what we CAN'T buy because we DID buy Turnitin. Again, thanks for sharing. Janet -----Original Message----- From: Greenberg, James ([log in to unmask]) Sent: Fri 5/30/2003 11:57 AM To: [log in to unmask] Cc: Subject: Turnitin Testimonial TBers, When the TB group talked about the world wide web based tool know as Turnitin, we focused on the issue of trying to use it as a teaching tool rather than as a punitive tool. (Turnitin as you may recall is the anti plagiarism tool on the web.) Given this, I thought you would find a recent testimonial about it interesting. Below are comments from a History professor at SUNY Oneonta, Dr. Hendley: Start snip: First, I wanted to thank you again for your help in getting my courses set up on www.turnitin.com <http://www.turnitin.com/> . I used it for four History courses in Spring 2003. All four of my courses had research essay assignments and it helped cut the amount of plagiarism cases by about a third. Best of all, the web site forced students to think more seriously about citation and presentation of evidence. Even in the papers I graded with no plagiarism problems there was much more attention to using footnotes and quotations and following proper format. I had about 140 students last term and found grading a large number of assignments less burdensome as a result of turnitin.com. I would like to use the web site again in the future. Please use my name if funding for the site is ever questioned! end snip. These comments are used with Dr. Hendley's permission. Mr. James B. Greenberg Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center Milne Library SUNY College at Oneonta Oneonta, New York 13820 email: [log in to unmask] phone: 607-436-2701 "Ignorance is curable, stupidity lasts forever"