Labflow and Turnitin: Collaborating to Uphold Academic Integrity in STEM and Lab Courses
Academic integrity lies at the heart of effective learning, fostering an environment of honesty and trust in pursuing knowledge. Catalyst Education, provider of the Labflow learning platform for STEM laboratory education, has joined forces with Turnitin, a renowned plagiarism detection service, to fortify academic integrity in STEM and lab courses. This partnership aims to equip educators with robust tools to identify and address instances of plagiarism, promoting ethical learning practices and ensuring the authenticity of student work. By integrating Turnitin's plagiarism detection capabilities into Labflow's comprehensive platform, students can engage in meaningful learning experiences while maintaining the highest standards of academic honesty.
How does it work?
Labflow checks for plagiarism through the following methods:
Originality reports: Labflow integrates with Turnitin, a leading plagiarism detection tool. Turnitin compares students' work to a vast database of academic sources, including journal articles, books, and websites. It then generates an originality report that highlights any instances of plagiarism.
Similarity checking: Labflow's similarity-checking feature compares students' work to each other. This helps instructors identify cases of collusion, where students have worked together on an assignment without proper authorization.
Instructor review: Ultimately, it is up to the instructor to review students' work and determine if plagiarism has occurred. Labflow's tools and features assist instructors in this process by providing them with the information they need to make informed decisions.
Focus on what matters: Labflow’s unique partnership with Turnitin allows only parts of lab reports that should be unique to be analyzed for similarity scores and plagiarism, unlike your campus license or LMS version, which can sometimes provide inflated scoring and inaccurate source detection.
How else does Labflow promote academic integrity?
Labflow promotes academic integrity through several features and strategies:
Randomized questions: Labflow's pre-lab homework and quizzes use randomized questions. This prevents students from simply copying answers from each other and encourages them to understand the material independently.
Immediate feedback: Labflow provides immediate feedback on quizzes and lab reports. This helps students identify errors and correct them promptly, reducing the temptation to plagiarize or fabricate data.
Multiple attempts: Labflow allows students to make multiple attempts on quizzes and lab reports. This encourages students to learn from their mistakes and improve their understanding of the material, rather than resorting to cheating.
Auto-grading: Labflow's auto-grading feature ensures that all students are graded fairly and consistently. This reduces the opportunity for students to receive preferential treatment or engage in grade grubbing.
Analytics and reporting: Labflow provides instructors with detailed analytics and reporting tools. These tools help instructors identify patterns of academic dishonesty, such as plagiarism or collusion, and take appropriate action.