Posted on 03/10/2006 12:22:30 AM PST by MissouriConservative
Mount Saint Vincent University has turned off Turnitin.com.
In a landmark decision, the Halifax school has banned the popular plagiarism-detection software used by hundreds of universities around the world.
Concerned about privacy and intellectual property rights, the Mount’s student union has worked since September to convince administrators to get rid of the service, which only a few professors began to use this year.
At a meeting of the university’s senate Monday evening, the students secured a prohibition they say is the first of its kind in Canada.
"It’s an absolute win for us, and I’m thrilled that our senate is willing to recognize the issues that students have raised," student union president Chantal Brushett, one of four student members of the university’s senate, said Tuesday in an interview.
"I think it really sets a precedent for other universities in the country and I really hope they follow the Mount’s great example."
Don’t expect the province’s largest university to do that. Dalhousie University has used Turnitin.com since August 2002 and has no plans to turf it, Phil O’Hara, Dal’s assistant director of academic computing, said Tuesday.
"It’s sad to hear that the Mount has made this decision," he said. "Who knows what the future might hold at Dalhousie? But I don’t think we would want to make the same decision."
Turnitin.com is an Internet-based subscription service that professors and others use to root out whether students’ papers contain material copped from other sources without giving proper credit. It maintains a database of millions of essays and compares submitted papers not only against those but also against websites and other published works.
It’s recognized as a leader in helping keep students, academics, and sometimes journalists, honest.
But many student groups believe that using a service like Turnitin is too punitive and automatically presumes guilt. Studies have shown that about 15 per cent of university students cheat regularly.
"Everyone has the right to learn in an environment that is free of guilt presumption and fear, and Turnitin.com does exactly what it shouldn’t be doing in a higher educational environment," Ms. Brushett said. "It creates a culture of fear, it creates a culture of guilt and to me, that hinders some people from pursuing higher education and doing it with an open mind."
She said the student union was also concerned that the U.S.-based service could be subject to searches under the far-reaching Patriot Act. Students were also worried about intellectual property rights.
Relying on recommendations from a joint faculty-student committee, the Mount voted to ban the service "and any other plagiarism detection software that requires that students’ work become part of an external database where other parties might have access to it."
The ban takes effect in May and will be reviewed in three years.
A university spokeswoman said the university was "neither for nor against" using the software but responded to the overwhelming opposition on campus.
Still, Robyn McIsaac said, the Mount takes academic integrity seriously and has stringent policies to prevent plagiarism.
The Dal student union plans to ask administrators to allow students to opt out of the service. President Ezra Edelstein said his members share some of the concerns of Mount students and are also troubled about privacy and copyright issues.
Mr. O’Hara says he understands fears about the U.S. Patriot Act, but the service has a privacy policy. Because it’s a subscription-only service, even subscribers are limited in what they can see, he said.
"The opt-out, that’s just going to feed into people’s hands that . . . have been cheating their way through their education."
But professors also have a responsibility to get to know their students and to do their own homework to suss out the cheaters, Ms. Brushett said.
"We feel that Turnitin.com is a back-end approach. We need to promote academic integrity, we need to teach students what is plagiarism, what you should do, what you shouldn’t do and have more personalized ways of checking for plagiarism.
"I don’t think Turnitin.com is a necessary tool when it comes to teaching students."
What the h*ll is wrong with supposed educated people?
I'm thinking that most of them, including the Senate.
They are too secure and permissive where they are. A System of Tenure is an invitation to outrage.
They're so behind the times up north: Plagiarism gets you a holiday in the United States.
I'm sure the majority of students who run for student government organizations cheat and plagiarize on a regular basis.
In fact, the 15% of the student body that cheats probably all sit on the student body government or work for it.
What a joke.
Colleges and Universities have established the greatest "culture of fear" on the planet with their speech codes, hate (thought) crimes, ivory tower bureaucracy, kangaroo student courts, and their brutal and politically biased faculty.
Furthermore, they are the least "open minded" people on the planet.
"Plagiarism gets you a holiday in the United States."
Not to mention reelected in Delaware....
Doesn't Canada also step around US drug patents? It seems copying other's work is a way of life in Canada.
About 15%...
Sorry, I misread your statement. Make that "about 100%."
Their reasoning is faulty on two counts. First, punitive means "inflicting punishment." Turnitin is a an investigative tool; it does not punish anyone. Second, simply checking papers for plagiarism does not presume anything except that some people will cheat (15% according to the article).
And that is the point. Some people will cheat, and these "student groups" want them to get away with it. If they were honest, they would admit their real motivation. But of course, if they were honest, they would not be working to aid plagiarists.
***"Everyone has the right to learn in an environment that is free of guilt presumption and fear, and Turnitin.com does exactly what it shouldn’t be doing in a higher educational environment,"...***
MORAL RELATIVISM
And that's just wrong.
Another point: How exactly does a university "ban" a web site?
Presumably, professors will still have access to Turnitin.com. The rules in Canada may be different, but here in the United States no one could prevent a tenured professor from using the software to detect plagiarism.
I agree. What does the innocent have to fear from plagiarism? If you feel guilt, then you've done something that you shouldn't have and you know it....that is the definition of guilt.
These kids know they are doing wrong, but don't want to feel the consequences of their actions.
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