It’s been a great experience working with Turnitin over the last few months. Admittedly at the beginning of process the thoughts of learning a new skill and trudging through training and trial-and-error situations was not an appetising prospect, but when I committed to the project it all took off nicely. I did the Turnitin grading online training in March. Grading via Turnitin is a bit like an arts and crafts project that you get dug into and don’t see the time flying by. I enjoyed the detail involved. I like the detail. I’m a bit disappointed that grading using Turnitin didn’t save time. Sort that out lads! In fact it was time consuming. Perhaps next year will be faster. The latest from the students is that they like it. They like it quite a lot. They have control and custody of the feedback. It’s in a safe and accessible place that they can revisit, if they wish. Next year I will develop the system and offer audio feedback for sure. That will be brilliant. I didn’t do that this year as there was too much new stuff going on and I didn’t always have my proper headset to hand. I did try it with a repeat student but she couldn’t seem to access the audio. I hope that isn’t going to be an issue next year. Overall it has been well worth the effort; the students have endorsed the use of Turnitin to grade their essay papers. Having said that, the majority would still like the option of supplementing the Turnitin quick marks with a talk with their lecturer. I understand this but I’d say this will be a minority of students especially if I get the audio thingy going. Bye, bye stacks of scripts travelling around Ireland in my boot. Hello grading online!
