Using Turn It In as an Online Assessment Tool

Zachary TaylorWatertown High School

Pre-seminar Work• Before the seminar, each teacher will

receive information as to how to sign up for www.turnitin.com and how to

create a class.• Follow the instructions that I

attached in this email so that you can sign up for a class and see my

assignments.

Method of Delivery

• Along with a visual representation, each teacher will be given real classroom materials that I am currently using to teach my students how to learn www.turnitin.com software.

• Ms. Ross- please follow the instructions for Composition on the right hand side

• Go to www.turnitin.com and sign up for any of these classes. Doing this will provide you a bit more insight as to the website I am presenting. You do not have to use a school email: a private Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo email will suffice.

Location• Here is where I am planning on

presenting my seminar. • This is a separate room in the

WHS library that allows me to project a larger image in front of the class, with each teacher allowed their own laptop to easily follow along with the steps.

• I will toggle between showing my screen on the big screen and showing this Powerpoint, which will be adjusted after your comments.

• Here is a You Tube link to a video that further explains my professional development seminar and final project.– http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm-L4XmgQP8

Summary ofOnline Assessment Tools Research

• I will begin the seminar with a brief presentation on the research collected regarding online assessment tools.

• Clark, K. (2009, May). E-Learning Clicks With Students. U.S. News & World Report, 146(4), 48-50.

• According to Clark (2009):– During the Fall 2008 semester, over four

million United States college students enrolled in an online course with absolutely no physical contact with a college campus, professor, or fellow student, compared to only two million United States students enrolled in an online course in Fall 2003 (Clark, 2009, p. 48)

• What are the implications of this research?

Online Assessment Tools Research

• Fulda, J. S. (2005). The ethical limitations of online grading systems. British Journal of Educational Technology, 36(3), 559-561.

• According to Fulda (2005):– “…the institution saves the cost of paying

someone to transcribe them from the grade roster, the risk of [grade entry] error is reduced, and the same interface can be made available to students, thereby allowing them quicker access to their grades,” there is also an increased risk of “the problems such systems may cause for faculty autonomy and ultimately for ethical behaviour [sic] by faculty and students,” (Fulda, 2005, p. 559).

• What are the implications of this research?

Online Assessment Tools Research

• Goo, M., Watt, S., Park, Y., & Hosp, J. (2012). A Guide to Choosing Web-Based Curriculum-Based Measurements for the Classroom. Teaching Exceptional Children, 45(2), 34-40.

• According to Goo et al (2012):– “Students whose teachers used CBMs to

guide instruction outperformed comparable students whose teachers did not use these measures,” (Goo, Watt, Park, & Hosp, 2012, p. 34).

– Additionally, “The data-collection process for each individual measure should take no more than a few minutes, allowing teachers to make immediate decisions about instruction,” (Goo et al., 2012, p. 34-35.)

• What are the implications of this research?

Online Assessment Tools Research

• Pare, D. E., & Joordens, S. (2008). Peering into large lectures: examining peer and expert mark agreement using peerScholar, an online peer assessment tool. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 24(6), 526-540.

• According to Pare & Joordens (2008):– “It was also found that students generally

liked the concept of peerScholar, they were pleased with the look and feel of the system, and they would like to use it in other university courses,” (Pare & Joordens, 2012, p. 538).

– The online assessment tool [peerScholar] was utilized in a class of 1,104 (Pare & Joordens, 2012, p. 536).

• What are the implications of this research?

Online Assessment Tools Research

• Young, J. R. (2011). Professors Cede Grading Power to Outsiders - Even Computers. Education Digest, 77(4), 24-28.

• According to Young (2011):– In 2010, Western Governors University, “hired

300 adjunct professors who do nothing but grade student work,” (Young, 2011, p. 25).

– “Western Governors requires all evaluators to hold at least a master's degree in the subject they're grading,” with each evaluator grading their assigned work at a distance over the internet (Young, 2011, p. 26).

• What are the implications of this research?

Independent Research• 134 Watertown High

School students were surveyed.

• Question 1: Would you agree to have all of your schoolwork graded by computers?

• What are the implications of this data?

YES10%

NO90%

Students asked: Would you agree to

have all of your schoolwork graded

by computers?

Presentation of Independent Research

• Question 2: Would you pay

higher tuition to have all of your

schoolwork graded by humans?

• What are the implications of

this data? What data is missing?

YES69%

NO31%

Students asked:Would you pay higher tu-ition to have all of your schoolwork graded by

humans?

Presentation of Independent Research

• Question 3: How important is receiving face-to-face feedback on all schoolwork?

• Students given four options.

• What are the implications of this data? What data is missing?

75%

13%

1% 10%

Students asked:How important is receiving face-to-face feedback on all

schoolwork?HIGH IMPORTANCE IMPORTANTNOT IMPORTANT DEPENDS

Introduction to www.turnitin.com

• I will first walk each teacher through their own profile and settings, showing how each setting ultimately affects their assignment uploading and downloading as well as their online grading techniques.

Creating New Classes• Then, I will model

the creation of a new class and ask each teacher to follow along and create a new class.

• At this point, I will leave my station and help those teachers who need assistance.

Creating New Classes• After any new classes

are created, a popup message appears: this is the information that students need to enroll in new classes and submit assignments.

• Here is where I will distribute my classroom materials that can be modified for any teacher or class.

Adding Assignments

• After clicking on the class name, the teacher is taken to a screen that features a link reading, “+ Add Assignment” in green.

• The teachers will click on the link while also seeing my screen projected on the front

board.

Adding Assignments• After clicking on “+ Add

Assignment,” the teachers are prompted to enter the title, value, and due dates of the assignment.

• The start date is when the assignment is available for student access and submission.

• The due date is when students must upload their work, otherwise it is marked in RED as late.

• The post date is when students can access the grades and comments on their assignments.

Adding Assignments

• The teachers will then be prompted to enter their information and then click on the “+ Optional settings” link to delve deeper into the assignment adding process.

“+ Optional settings”• There are numerous

optional settings allowed for each assignment.

• First, the “special instructions” box allows teachers to leave their students a note that corresponds to their submission of an assignment.

• Second, the “Allow submissions after due date” option allows teachers to leave the online dropbox open or closed after the due date. If the dropbox is left open, the assignment is flagged in RED if submitted after the due date. If the dropbox is closed, the students cannot submit their work after the due date.

“+ Optional settings”• Third, the “Originality Report”

allows the software program to scan the Internet to check the student-submitted document for plagiarism: the “Generate Originality Reports” option allows teachers to show their students whether or not their work is a copy of someone else’s.

• Fourth, the “Exclude bibliographic materials” option allows teachers to ignore a student’s Works Cited page in the Originality Report.

• Fifth, the “Exclude quoted materials” option allows teachers to exclude anything written in quotation marks in the paper and have those remarks disregarded by the Originality Report engine built into the software.

More “+ Optional settings”

• After scrolling down the menu, the teachers will learn about more optional settings.

• The first, “Exclude small matches” allows teachers to disregard small matches of text at the teacher’s discretion.

• Next, the “Allow students to see Originality Reports” option allows teachers to allow their students to see how much of their paper is original or fabricated.

• Third, the “Submit papers to” option and the “Search options” both pertain to where the papers are uploaded and what locations the Turn It In search engines use to check Originality Reports.

• Lastly, the “Grade Mark” option will be discussed shortly, after the remaining options.

More “+ Optional settings”

• After scrolling down to the very bottom of the page (skipping the Rubrics section for now), the teachers are given the option to enable the “ETS e-rater” system, which is Turn It In’s online, automated grammar checker.

• The e-rater can be adjusted to the “Advanced, High School, Middle School, Elementary, or English Learner” level.

• Here, I will share my personal experiences with the e-rater, including the fact that e-rater misses roughly 70% of comma errors, finds misspellings in numbers and student names, as well as does not provide the student with very much feedback on their errors.

Rubric Manager

• After scrolling through all of the options, I will direct the teachers

back to the “Attach a rubric to this assignment” option and ask them

to click on “Launch Rubric Manager.”

Rubric Manager• In the Rubric

Manager, I will show teachers how to adjust grading criteria, scales, point values, and supplementary comments for each rubric they create.

Grading Assignments

• After creating a rubric, I will show each teacher how to grade an assignment using

www.turnitin.com.• First, they will go back to their class page, submit

a model assignment (this will be provided to them) and then follow my instructions.

• After clicking on the class name, the teacher will click on the “View” link underneath the “Actions” header on the right hand side of the screen, just

next to “+ Add Assignment.”

Grading Assignments

• After clicking “View,” the teachers will be provided a list of student assignments. Above is a screenshot of my class list, along with the

files my students have uploaded. • To grade the document, the teachers will be

asked to click on the blue pencil icon underneath the “GRADE” heading.

Grading Assignments

• After clicking on an assignment, I will walk the teachers through the e-rater marks (in purple), the “drag and drop comments” on the right, and

then rubric integration.

Individual Work Time and Discussion

• I will conclude the seminar with 15 minutes of individual work time in

order to allow each teacher to explore the site at their leisure. • Finally, the teachers and I will

collaborate once more in a discussion of the site, the grading techniques,

troubleshooting, and the optimization of the program.

Ms. Ross:• This slideshow is a skeleton walkthrough of my

presentation: I will answer questions, ask questions, and encourage collaboration throughout the presentation.

• I have added potential discussion questions at the bottom of every slide in the “Click to add notes” section.

• I edited the Powerpoint references to the teachers themselves and attached a PDF file that is a straightforward technical manual of how to use www.turnitin.com.

• The teachers will be provided the PDF at the end of the seminar, and the PDF will also be uploaded to the faculty drive, making the presentation available to all WHS faculty at any time.