FHWien der WKW (University of Applied Sciences for Management and Communications) is one of the leading universities in Austria in the field of Management and Communications. Belonging to the top ten percent of universities using modern learning technologies, it offers extensive and practice-oriented courses to more than 2,700 students enrolled in bachelor’s, master’s and continuing education programs, the majority of whom are professionally employed while studying.
Challenge
Prior to working with Turnitin, FHWien der WKW operated their own online “plagiarism checker”, originally developed by staff. Whilst the tool succeeded in highlighting matching and similar text, tutors were responsible for submitting on behalf of their students. This translated into a lot of additional time and effort on their part, which impacted their grading and consultation duties. Most importantly, even with their plagiarism checker in place, the university still hadn’t managed to decrease their average number of unoriginal writing cases.
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With approximately 1,000 new students being enrolled every year, and 1,500 - 1,700 pieces of work being submitted online, the old tool was extremely inconvenient to use.
Solution
In the search for a service that saves time, checks for originality, and provides online feedback, the university identified Turnitin as being the most beneficial solution for its current challenges. As a result, in 2011, they licensed Turnitin in an effort to improve their internal processes for the benefit of both academic staff and students. Using Turnitin, students upload their papers themselves and their work is automatically checked against Turnitin’s database of student papers, journals, books and web pages to identify similar or matching text.
The university’s implementation of Turnitin and their new process was so successful that they incorporated this solution as part of their examination procedure for bachelor’s and master’s theses. “Our exam regulations are controlled. Bachelor’s and master’ s dissertations need to be submitted online as a ‘Turnitin Task’, so they get checked straight away,” says Ms. Huber. Students are required to upload their dissertations direct to the platform, which allows lecturers to focus on assessment and giving meaningful feedback instead of carrying out administrative tasks. Ms. Huber also adds: “Whether students are completing an assignment or taking an exam, it’s important for them to know that they’ve got there on their own.”
Results
Using Turnitin has had a significant and wide-ranging impact on FHWien der WKW. Cases of plagiarism raised by the university have significantly reduced in number. Students with different supervisors are now unable to copy from their colleagues, as any collusion attempts are now easily identifiable. For instance, the university encountered a case where a student submitted duplicated material acquired from one of his classmates; this plagiarised material was instantly highlighted by Turnitin. Before the implementation of Turnitin, collusion checking at FHWien der WKW was impossible, as the university’s old tool was unable to check for similarities in texts submitted to different classes and different tutors.
Furthermore, academic staff can now focus their time and efforts on providing instruction and meaningful feedback to students, allowing them to assess students’ work in a flexible and timely manner; this means that the university’s evaluation speed has accelerated and students receive feedback much faster than before. Students are now responsible for their own online submissions and lecturers are not burdened with the additional work of managing student paperwork and enforcing submission deadlines. Turnitin has empowered the university to address unoriginal writing cases in a holistic manner and benefits from a more efficient and effective feedback process.
Ms. Huber remarks: “The lecturers are very excited as Turnitin is much more convenient to use. They are also grateful that a big part of their work can be done online.”
The academic learning process at the university has been optimized. The teaching staff now has more time to focus on developing appropriate and constructive feedback for every student. Students are now taught how to conduct research, write in a correct academic style, and cite appropriately. As a result, students have come to realize the importance of academic integrity and honest writing.
Ms. Huber is not the only member of FHWien der WKW who has recognized the value of Turnitin Feedback Studio, highlighting that the tool is being used by every member of the institution. “It works well, and everyone is satisfied and pleased with it.”
In conclusion, Ms. Huber recommends Turnitin solutions to other institutions and has this particular piece of advice:
I think it is important that institutions establish standardized rules for the submissions of the students’ theses to fully integrate the tool into their learning platforms. This is what we did to take complete advantage of its features. Overall, I think Turnitin tools are fantastic, mostly because they save the lecturers so much time.
Learn more about Feedback Studio at turnitin.com/products/feedback-studio
The lecturers are very excited, as Turnitin is much more convenient to use. They are also grateful that a big part of their work can be done online.
