Tel Tales

Adventures in Technology Enhanced Learning @ UoP

Month: November 2017

Turnitin

Turnitin – What’s in a number?

November 27, 2017 / / 0 Comments

The University of Portsmouth uses the Turnitin service to provide facilities for plagiarism detection, online marking and as a development tool for academic writing, although most users are interesting in one thing – a number.

Contained within the Originality Report is a Similarity Score out of 100, which many users wrongly believe to a be plagiarism score with a magic number, at which in can be conclusively determined whether plagiarism has or has not occurred. The problem is, this figure can be manipulated, there will also be mitigating circumstances and lastly let us not forget the system is not perfect either – there will be some margin for error.

Crudely speaking the Similarity Score number is a percentage of the words in your document which matched text from other documents that Turnitin searched against. For shorter assignments with a direct question and consequently a more concise correct answer may well therefore see higher score when compared to a longer assignment with more scope to include to include diverse material.

The number of students in your class and whether the assignment has been set in previous years (or at different institutions) may limit the scope for truly original material, that’s not to say a very high score is necessarily acceptable however it does mean that the latest content may not be unique for genuine reasons. An assignment based upon group work is also a recipe for a higher than usual Similarity Score since students are likely to be working from the same research, data and figures so will in all likelihood draw the same conclusions.

What does Turnitin check an assignment against? There are stored student papers in both a global central repository and the University of Portsmouth own repository (where we might store more sensitive documents). Turnitin also searches against material found on the internet and can check journals, periodicals and publications. Personally I would check against everything, if the service is available, use it.

Turnitin offers several filters which may be toggled, for example whether to include or exclude bibliographic references. Personally I cannot think of a reason why you want to include bibliographic references in the Similarity Score as citing sources is a requirement of good academic writing. That said if the assignment were a lab report and references were not expected then it might be safer to include bibliographic references just in case the Turnitin software incorrectly identified a bibliography and consequently excluded all of the text that followed. You can also toggle quoted material, quotes would not normally be considered within a plagiarism report although the volume of them may indicate a lack of original content from the author. Where quoted material is excluded from the Originality Report, Turnitin helpfully points out when more than 15% of the paper is quoted material. The final filter is for small matches, usually matches of 3-4 words are rather inconsequential, you may also have longer phrases that appear repeatedly throughout the assignment – you can exclude this from being repeatedly matched and skewing the Similarity Score using the ‘exclude small matches’ filter. Personally I use all the filters, excluding bibliographic references, quoted material and small matches – I can always turn them back on later when reviewing a paper if I am suspicious.

So after searching against all of the available material, excluding bibliographic references, quoted material and small matches, what is the magic number? Well, the magic number is… the number at which you become suspicious of course!

Finally, to wrap up this post, and just in case a concerned student has stumbled across this blog post, I would like to emphasise that if they know they have not deliberately plagiarised then they have nothing to worry about. If they are concerned that they have used another source and may not have referenced it properly, then guidance is available from the Academic Skills Unit (https://kb.myport.ac.uk/Article/Index/12/4?id=2747)

 

Email: academicskills@port.ac.uk

Telephone: +44 (0)23 9284 3462

Or, visit the Academic Skills Unit in person during our opening hours:

Third floor Reception, The Nuffield Centre

St Michael’s Road

Portsmouth

PO1 2ED

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Listening to the Student Voice | an Overview

November 20, 2017 / / 0 Comments

The University of Portsmouth places the student experience at the centre of its philosophy and vision. The University’s vision as expressed in its education strategy 2012–2017 is: “To provide an excellent, inspiring and challenging educational experience underpinned by research, scholarship and professional and ethical practice, through which our students will be able to achieve personal, academic and career success”. Since the University strives to provide an excellent student experience, it creates and follows policies that promote ways in which such an experience can be facilitated. Such ways include teaching and other staff practices, support services, mechanisms that enable student participation in the shaping of University policies, student surveys, and other forms of feedback that allow the student voice to be heard.

In order to improve its standards, various teams are involved in undertaking research and conducting surveys. The Department for Curriculum and Quality Enhancement (DCQE) plays a major role in these activities. Other departments that are involved include the Academic Registry and the Graduate School. In addition to working with its people (staff and students), the University of Portsmouth often works closely with other institutions, the government, and bodies such as the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

With both external and internal support and participation, the University of Portsmouth conducted a number of student experience surveys over the last few years, including the:

  • annual National Student Survey (NSS);
  • biennial Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES);
  • biennial University of Portsmouth Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (UPPRES);
  • biennial Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES);
  • International Student Barometer (ISB);
  • UK Engagement Survey (UKES)
  • Mres Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (MPRES)
  • JISC Student Digital Experience Tracker
  • Unit Satisfactions Questionnaires (USQ); and the
  • University of Portsmouth Student Experience Survey (UPSES).

Furthermore, the University participates in various student experience projects, such as the Postgraduate Experience Project (PEP) and policy change projects that focus their efforts on the student experience, such as the Transform Project. These among other surveys and projects explore aspects of the student experience and educational excellence which revolve around the key areas of ‘teaching quality’, the ‘learning environment’, ‘student outcomes’, and ‘learning gain’ (as stated in the Teaching Excellence Framework). Overall, the University of Portsmouth promotes and achieves a student experience of a very high standard which results in a number of desirable outcomes: it places us very high up in the national rankings; encourages the pursuit and attainment of teaching and learning excellence; offers an equally rewarding experience to its staff; and contributes to the academic ethos that the University strives for.

The very existence of such a variety of student experience surveys and projects reflects the values that the University puts on a quality student experience – values that are upheld in the University’s policies. The high performance of the University – as presented in reports following these surveys and projects – as well as the subsequent action taken in response to such surveys demonstrate this. The University will continue to undertake research and conduct surveys in order to promote its values and strategies; provide first class educational opportunities to its students; improve its standards for and with society; develop the potential of its areas of strength; and gain a better understanding of areas in need of improvement.

Image credits: Photo by Japheth Mast on Unsplash

A young child with extra large glasses on, sitting opened mouthed staring at a laptop, resting his hands on the keyboard

Ten steps to creating great lecture capture!

November 13, 2017 / / 2 Comments

One – Don’t be scared, just give it a go!

Embedding video content within your own Moodle course can be a great way of engaging your students and enhancing their learning experience.

Two – Think about your audience

Think about what it is that you want your students to learn from engaging in this video – will it add value to their learning experience? Is this the most appropriate way of delivering course content? Will watching the video deepen students’ subject knowledge? How will the content delivered in the video tie in with the course learning objectives?

Three – Planning out your recording

You may have lots of ideas of what you want to talk about in your video – whether it be a new topic you are introducing or an old topic you are revisiting. However, plan exactly what it is you want to say and when, and then break this down into bite-sized chunks. You can create a storyboard to help you do this. This will help you to refine your presentation and add structure.

Once you have done this write a script; read it out aloud so that you can hear what works and what feels too forced. Having a script also means that you have a readily available transcript document, therefore providing an alternative format for those students that have accessibility issues when watching videos.

Four – Using visuals

To help make your video more interesting and engaging use images and graphics along side your presentation to illustrate key points and explain complex concepts. However, don’t go overboard and send you students into visual stimulation meltdown, as too much can also distract the audience from the point you are trying to make – keep it relevant!

Five – How to add interactivity

Following on from the video why not set up a discussion activity that allow students to apply what they have learnt from the video. You could also create some questions that test students’ understanding of the information that has been delivered.

Six – What about the length?

The length of your video is really important. When possible try to keep recordings to a maximum of 10 minutes or create pauses to give your audience a chance to digest and reflect on the topic you are presenting about. Studies have shown that students do not engage with video lectures in the same way as face-to-face lectures

Seven – Be Copyright smart!

Make sure that any material used in your videos is copyright cleared – this means using sites like Creative commons and Flickr creative commons or gaining permissions directly from the original owner of the material.

Eight – Using equipment

Tripod: If you are not using an integrated lecture capture system then you need to consider  using a tripod for your recording – wobbly footage can cause quite a nauseating effect in your audience!   

Best possible lighting: Unless you are recording in a professional studio you will need to think carefully about the quality of lighting in your chosen recording location. Good lighting will maximise the picture quality – think about whether there is enough natural light from windows or whether the room has adequate lighting.

Microphone: sound is a really important element of your recording… if the audio is bad then your audience is not going to be able to engage with it and will very quickly lose interest in what is being presented!

Nine – Location, location, location

Choose the space wisely! You’ll need a quiet location where you know you won’t be interrupted or disturbed. Locations that suit the topic you are presenting on are great. However, be wary on how practical the location is to record and be aware that you may need permission to be there!

Ten – You; The presenter!

Rehearse and practice before pressing the record button…

  • Be yourself!
  • Dress in neutral clothing
  • Avoid fast movements and fidgeting!
  • Be natural and informal in your delivery – try, when possible, to bring humor and your own experiences into your presentation
  • Speak clearly and using short sentences and don’t panic if you get your words muddled… just carry on as if you would do in a lecture theatre!
  • Make eye contact with the camera in order to connect with your audience

UbiCast Lecture Capture

UbiCast Lecture Capture

November 6, 2017 / / 1 Comment

Credit image: UbiCast https://www.ubicast.eu/en/products/campus-automated-lecture-capture-elearning-moocs/

The University has selected the UbiCast Lecture Capture system for producing high quality recordings of lectures. The system has been designed to be seamless to use, with your only input being to start and stop the recording, or to request in advance that the lecture is recorded – in which case the entire process can be automated for you! You then need only do what you would normally do in that room to begin your teaching, such as ensuring the microphone is switched on and can be heard by the audience.

The system captures audio from the desk and/or tie microphone depending on the room configuration and plays it back to users alongside the content you have projected for the students and/or the output from a video camera. To make the video of your presentation more engaging, the camera can digitally track you as you move within the presentation area. The compiled output will also sense when it is appropriate to display either the camera or the presented content in full screen mode to draw the viewer’s attention.

Although the high definition camera is fixed in each room, our editing software automatically recognises upper-body shapes within the defined presentation area and frames (tracks) these as they move about, hence the final output is similar to that achieved by a camera crew filming the event. To achieve the best results, we recommend wearing clothes that will contrast against the backdrop in the room. If possible you should also remove any ‘shapes’ from the presentation area which may interfere with the recognition process such as empty chairs.

Once the recording has been stopped it will automatically render and upload to our Media Server, which is accessible at https://mediaserver.capture.port.ac.uk/ using your UoP login details. You should then contact the TEL team at elearn@port.ac.uk with details of your presentation (title, date, time, room) and we will make your recording available to you. Ultimately, we hope that all you will then want to edit on your recording is to trim it, though  before you actually trim anything we recommend that you watch through all the parts that you intend to use and let the TEL team know if there are any issues with camera tracking as we can fix these first. You will have access to trim the recording yourself, whether this is just top and tailing or cutting out sections from the middle is up to you, you can then merge all of your parts together as one recording or split them into separate videos should you wish. Once you are happy with your recording, let the TEL team know and we will ‘publish’ the video making it accessible to other users on the server. Should you wish you could also then embed the recording within Moodle.

UbiCast is currently only available in a limited number of rooms across campus – Eldon West 1.11, Park 2.23, Richmond LT1, Dennis Sciama 2.02 and The Graduate School 4.09 in St Andrews Court. We also have a mobile unit that the TEL Team can set up in suitable rooms around campus –- but please contact the TEL team well in advance to check room suitability.

If you like UbiCast spread the word, as we can then look at an investment proposal to expand the service.

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