I'm using a new feature on Turnitin.com, with great success as far as I can see. I plan to ask some students how they feel about it after official grades are turned in. I'm very into paperless classes, and this service has contributed to that goal (although as much as I may try to have a paperless class, my students still print out the electronic materials I provide them--oh, well.)
For those unfamiliar with Turnitin.com, its primary function is plagiarism prevention. Students upload papers and the program checks them against the Internet, all papers previously submitted, and ProQuest. I've found it's mainly a plagiarism deterrent. But that's not the reason I use it. It has a gradebook feature that allows students to check their grades as the semester goes on, and I don't have to come up with any spreadsheet formulas. But it is smart to download the gradebook every time changes are made for a backup.
So what I'm excited about now is electronic grademarking. I had not tried it until this week because I was unconvinced that I could mark papers as efficiently and communicate what I wanted to show electronically. Turns out, I'm getting through my papers faster than with pen and paper grading! And I am totally comfortable with the marks I have made--the program gives a lot of options. The extra convenience is that students were required to submit them electronically and they do not have to meet me in class--especially nice since I have moved a half hour away from campus. I know that email is effective for that purpose, but this way not only do they give me their papers, but they also get them back right away with my marks.
Downside: Now that I live in the boondocks (again) I only have dial-up internet, and it is taking a while to download papers. And while I'm at the task of reviewing on-line services, I officially do not like Earthlink. And the "accelerator" they're so proud of is laughable. I've been promised cable internet by mid-September. Monday I'm going to school early to turn in grades and will stay for a while to do some blogging and relish the high speed connection. Now to upload my post, which will take three hours.
P.S. The blogger spellcheck does not recognize "blogging" as a word.
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4 comments:
This website/ software sounds PERFECT!! If I ever start teaching again, I'll be sure to use it. I'm sure it would work for me too.
Wow, I can't believe you have dial-up - I hope you get DSL or cable soon (though DSL is not as good - we only have it now because it's 10 bucks cheaper).
Lilian, This is a service that my university subscribes to and the department adds a little money for the grading function--you might bring it up to the powers that be.
I read about Turnitin.com when I was searching for copyright infringement software for the e-commerce company I work for. Unfortunately, there aren't as many programs out there for the business side of things as there are for the academic side. I can't believe that the blog spellchecker doesn't recognize its own word.
We don't exactly live in the boondocks, but beyond DSL-land. We're using Fios from Verizon; it's a little cheaper than DSL, and we've been pretty happy with it so far. Sure beats dial-up and mooched wireless.
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