International recognition for promoting academic integrity

Rīga Stradiņš University has received a ‘Honourable Mention: Writing with Integrity’ in the Turnitin Global Innovation Awards, being recognized by the developer of the plagiarism detection, revision assistant and electronic assessment tool turnitin for its commitment and dedication in promoting academic integrity. Turnitin global innovation awards are presented on annual basis in multiple categories. This year there were 678 nominations received from all around the globe.

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Turnitin system is integrated into RSU e-studies and ensures full service cycle from submitting and assessing papers, performing plagiarism check and providing targeted feedback.

"We are a positive example in the Europe of how turnitin really works. The plagiarism detection tool assists the university in organizing its everyday work, as it allows us to easily identify works that contain signs of plagiarism. Previously, to check whether the work submitted by a student is original, students submitted their works on CDs or flash cards and the originality was checked manually against the library’s database which could be accessed only by a limited number of users. Now everything is accomplished on e-studies where the lecturer posts an assignment, sets a deadline and students upload their papers. As soon as the papers are uploaded, the system performs a plagiarism check and reports on the sources from which the contents of the paper have been copied", RSU e-studies manager highlights the advantages of the software.

Turnitin incorporates two main tools: Originality Check which automatically checks the availability of non-original contents in the submitted work (plagiarism) and GradeMark+ETS & QuickMark – a tool for easy grading of the submitted works which allows to speed up and increase the grading quality.

Previously the plagiarism check was performed only for course papers, bachelor and research theses, however the introduction of turnitin has made it possible to check the originality of every work.

The popularity of turnitin at RSU is growing with every year. Since spring semester 2015 the system has been used for 161 776 times to check various papers submitted by RSU students.

The IT Department, lecturer Marta Ābula and e-study Manager Rolands Bļujus have highly contributed to the implementation of the plagiarism detection tool and staff training.

General information about the Award

More about how turnitin was implemented at RSU