Internet-based plagiarism detection service provider Turnitin helps private education organization NextEd tackle actual and potential academic misconduct, including detection of AI writing tools like ChatGPT, on a cohort of 15,000 national and international students.
Since implementing the Turnitin platform, NextEd has seen a noticeable increase in levels of understanding of academic integrity, noticeable improvements in search and SEO, an increase in literacy skills, and a dramatic reduction in cases. of plagiarism, going from 140 to less than 20 cases per year, a drop of more than 85%.
According to NextEd, some students resort to cheating for a variety of reasons, including “misunderstanding the Western conceptualization of what constitutes academic dishonesty.”
“Once we implemented Turnitin, we immediately saw the benefits for the entire NextEd community,” said Eve Ollerenshaw, Professional Vice Chancellor of NextEd.
“Faculty credits the platform with easing administrative and assessment burdens, freeing up their time to engage more closely with students and facilitate meaningful relationships. Additionally, students are consistently equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to advance in their education and the rest of their lives, with academic integrity as a well-formed and well-understood foundation.
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“NextEd aims to empower our 200 educators to provide students with optimal learning experiences underscored by original thinking about diverse content formats and assessment methods, regardless of the course they are taking,” said added Ollerenshaw.
“We wanted a solution that could educate; not only detect potential cases of cheating, but guide best practices to prepare students for life and career after graduation.
“Turnitin gives us much more than a plagiarism checker to identify academic errors. Its vast capabilities enable us to engage and support students by embedding integrity into every part of the learning process. »
Stricter detection of plagiarism among students is behind an initiative called “All Things Compliance workshop” which serves as a community of practice for academic integrity and explores the most effective ways to use tools like Turnitin .
NextEd plans to expand its use of the Turnitin suite of products to ensure delivery by all vendors within the institution, to maintain its standards and reputation for upholding academic integrity.
As part of this roadmap, NextEd will showcase Turnitin’s AI handwriting detection tool, which launched in April. The solution provides an evaluative measure of the number of sentences in a submission that may have been generated by artificial intelligence, which educators can use to determine if further review, investigation, or discussion with the student is needed.
“We will be implementing Turnitin’s AI write detection capabilities across the NextEd group, and we look forward to testing them and providing feedback. ChatGPT, like anything new, has elements of merit and potential for misuse – we aim to teach our academic teams and students the merits of using this technology wisely for positive gain. Turnitin helps us in this approach to keep ethics as a cornerstone of what we do,” Ollerenshaw said.
“There are increasing cases of student cheating, both intentional and the result of misunderstanding the definition of academic dishonesty. Regardless of the motive, it ultimately harms the future students,” said Turnitin Regional Vice President, APAC, James Thorley.
“Despite the challenges of remote learning, NextEd bucks the trend of cheating through the strategic integration of technology into curricula, which directly and positively impacts its educator and broad base. of students.”
NextEd, formerly iCollege, is an Australian company that operates 10 education businesses, as well as an international student recruitment agency, covering English language studies, information technology, coding, design, healthcare, hospitality and construction.
Like other education providers, NextEd has witnessed an increase in cheating among domestic students and its growing number of international enrollments amid the prevalence of distance learning.