Doing better things: transforming how we use Turnitin for learningTurnitin

DOING THINGS BETTER: TRANSFORMING HOW WE USE TURNITIN FOR LEARNING

Earle AbrahamsonWednesday 15/3/17

CONTENT1. Overview of Turnitin as a software platform for learning enhancement2. Quickmarks and gradebook – challenges and opportunities3. Listening to our students4. Directing feedback for learning5. Evaluating feedforward6. Genre-based feedback

1. TURNITIN AND LEARNING ENHANCEMENT

TURNITIN

Be careful Turnitin will uncover you are cheating…

Students’ Perception Staff

2. QUICKMARKS AND GRADE BOOK

QUICKMARKS• Challenges and Pitfalls• For whom are they intended• Are generic quickmarks useful?• Should assessors build their own quickmarks for

each assignment?• How do students read quickmarks?• Language and learning• Towards new ideas

Student-oriented feedback?

‘Coordinate ideas should be expressed in parallel form. All expressions that are similar in content and function should be expressed similarly.’

‘The expression or construction is cumbersome or difficult to read. Consider rewriting.’

From Turnitin Quick MarksHow easy is it to use this feedback?

Consider feedback from the student’s personal development perspective.

Current Quick Mark Example

Student’s response:

• “What kind of work?”

• “I thought it made sense.”

Possible Quick Mark Example

Strange

This sentence has a strange or difficult word order, making it hard for me to understand. How could you have made it even clearer?

.For further advice on this, visit http://writeitright.uelconnect.org.uk/pages/guides/87/uel_write_it_right.html

Your sentence could be clearer

Focuses on improvements & gives advice• Does not just observe errors• Is simple and unambiguous• Personal, simple language used

Unclear sentence

3. LISTENING TO OUR STUDENTS

LISTENING TO OUR STUDENTSNARRATIVES AND NEGOTIATION

How do our students receive and interpret feedback?

How can we use Turnitin to enhance feedback so that it becomes meaningful to our students?

Do we question the intention and purpose of feedback?

Are students inducted into receiving and understanding feedback?

Students need to learn implicit academic rules

Academic Literacy‘meaning making, identity, power, and authority … the institutional nature of what counts as knowledge’

Academic Socialisation ‘Students acquire the ways of talking, writing, thinking, and using literacy that typified members of a disciplinary or subject area community’

(Lea and Street, 2006)

20th century

We have our own rules and conventions.

We have our own rules and conventions.

- Think like us.

- Write like us. We never

discussed this on the BTEC.

Writing? But I’m no good at

English (or speak it as a second

language).

Wikipedia is so

convenient.

This lecturer is asking for too

much.

LOL! Another puppy picture on Facebook!

I’m tired from my night shift and

haven’t had time to eat yet.

I already know this. Tell me how

to get a first instead.

I want to keep that similarity score down.

I want to build a robust

argument.

How does University work?

21st century You will

need to:

Many students experience written assessments

as a high-stakes activity• ‘students may be unprepared because of inadequate schooling experiences, competing family and work demands’ (Engstrom, 2008, cited in Chokwe, 2013)

• ‘students’ underprepared status often serves to compound their marginalisation and oppression’

(Sanchez and Paulson, 2008, cited in Chokwe, 2013)

• ‘academic under-preparedness inevitably leads to academic exclusion’ (Chokwe, 2013)

Developmental feedback can bridge

these gaps.

4. DIRECTING FEEDBACK FOR LEARNING

Students need our help in understanding feedback and directing

their learning

DIRECTING FEEDBACK

5. EVALUATING FEED FORWARD

Feedback as LearningTake Home Messages

Publicise what good writing is. Use student work, with their permission, to show other students what good writing is. Building on from the first tip, the green light comments could be organised into a catalogue of writing examples. Students tend to appreciate reviewing and/or viewing other students submissions. Learning with, and from, peers is a powerful learning technique.

Use multiple channels for feeding back to students. Turnitin has an audio record tab. A short focused audio file, makes the feedback more personal and students tend to relate to the way in which the feedback is delivered. Focus on what the student is doing well, and then consider how they could improve their work. Think carefully about how the feedback is being received and the reason for feeding back.

Feedback as LearningOpen the Channels

Use subtle background music during the audio feedback. Background music creates another listening channel and can be inviting for students. However the choice of music or background sounds needs to be carefully considered. The aim is to enhance the feedback not detract from it.

Give students the opportunity to reflect upon their feedback. Ask them to provide comment on the level and depth of the feedback they receive. It is also important to ask students how they intend to use the feedback to improve their work.

6. GENRE-BASED FEEDBACKTHE LANGUAGE OF LISTENING

• for students during writing

• for staff during feedback• What is my hypothesis?• What should my text do?• How am I meant to sound?• What does my reader need from

me?• Who am I writing to/for?• How should it be structured?• Can I question the experts?• What is my position, voice,

identity, and purpose in this discourse community?• What academic rules must I

abide by?• Why am I writing?• What does my lecturer expect of

me?

Descriptive Critical

“Big language

”Clarity

“Avoid plagiarism

”Evidence

Sometimes poles apart

Expectation Experience

Students

Staff

Feedback should be developmental

High stakes decisions

Genre-based Quick MarkStatistical analysis

Data obtained in this study were evaluated by one-way analysis of variance using general linear model procedure of SAS (SAS, 1986). If the F test for treatment effect was significant, differences between treatment means were determined using the Duncan’s multiple range test (Duncan, 1955). The pen was considered an experimental unit and significance was determined at p < 0.05.

Methodology sections often have commentaries that help the writer justify the approach taken, usually related to what other writers have done in the past. Visit this site for more information:

http://www.uefap.com/writing/genre/method.htm

Justify your Methodology

• Feedback related to the structure and purpose of the text

• Links to resources that help explain how the text should work

Justify your methodology

THANKS. ANY FEEDBACK?

Get in touch with us:

Earle Abrahamson| Senior Lecturer in Sports Therapy | e.d.abrahamson@uel.ac.uk

Dr Jonathan Mann | English for Academic Purposes Tutor | j.mann@uel.ac.uk

REFERENCESChokwe, J (2013) 'Factors Impacting Academic Writing Skills of English Second Language Students', Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 4(14), 377-83.

Lee, K., Choo1, W.,  Kang, C. and An, B. (2016) ‘Effect of lycopene on the copper-induced oxidation of low-density lipoprotein in broiler chickens’, SpringerPlus, 5(389), 1-8.