A solid tool for writing, collaboration and feedback
Community Review for Turnitin
My Take
I love this tool as does my department. It serves its purpose well. I really like the ease of some of the basic tenets of the program and in many cases it has helped my students learn from the feedback provided through the program. One of the major downsides to the program is that numerous features of the program are not intuitive. The user interface can be confusing to some and much training is required for most users to get them comfortable with the basics.
How I Use It
I’ve been using this product for over five years in the English classroom. In fact the entire English department and other content teachers use the license as well. Specifically, I use it for students to upload most of their written work. The program then checks the internet and its own database of papers for originality. Then, it provides a percentage of matching phrases from other sources. It’s a great tool for plagiarism and probably the best. However, there are other tools that are often overlooked such as the grammar checker, feedback supports, and the collaborative features. It has the capability to check grammar for the minor things and also for items like passive voice and misuse of other common mistakes. The instructor has the option to grade in a variety of ways. One can type a score, use the scale to automatically calculate a score, write comments on the paper, click and drag commonly used comments, and even record verbal feedback up to three minutes long. The program can also auto-assign papers anonymously within the class to other students for peer feedback.