Last year, Croydon College ran more than 40,000 submissions through Turnitin. Usage has continued to trend up, thanks in large part to its innovative integration with the larger technology ecosystem, which includes Moodle, ProMonitor, and custom scripts. “I think we are an exceptional model of good practice and certainly prove that a whole institution adoption of Turnitin can work with limited support resources,” says E-Learning Manager Andrew Checkley.
Even though there has been a drop in resources across the education sector, Checkley says that he and the Academic Services department have been able to come up with creative solutions to manage the growing demand for online systems like Turnitin and maximize their potential.
“Due to the excellent way in which the Turnitin plugins are written for Moodle, I have programmed my own plugins and scripts around the log reports and database tables to enable continued support and additional flexibility,” he explains. He has been able to link data to achieve greater efficiencies, transparency, and process improvements, which have resulted in fairer student assessments and a more holistic view of student and staff potential.
Croydon College originally invested in Turnitin to check student submissions for plagiarism, but Checkley says recent impact has surpassed expectations. Students have used the Academic Service department’s extensive online support and tutorials to develop a deeper understanding of research, referencing, and academic integrity. Lecturers have learned how to use Turnitin to save time marking and to provide more effective feedback, and they, along with college administrators, are starting to use the custom combined reports to spot patterns and identify needed interventions. Checkley has also streamlined administration of Turnitin, enabling support teams to know when support crunch times might be coming up (i.e. submission deadlines).
With Turnitin, Checkley says he’s taken an already efficient system and innovated, which showcases how technology and teamwork can benefit students and result in a system that scales and secures confidence in IT.