The Effect of a Policy of Mandatory Use of TurnItIn by Graduate and Postgraduate Online Students on Reducing Unoriginal Writing

An accredited online university, located in northern U.S., implemented TurnItIn in order to reduce unoriginal writing of graduate and postgraduate students. The research problem was the lack of empirical research-based findings on the implementation of TurnItIn similarity index rates on reducing unoriginal academic work. This study was grounded in the social learning theory. The research question that guided this study was “What is the effect of the implementation of TurnItIn reports containing similarity index rates on reducing unoriginal writing in online classes of graduate and postgraduate students?” Archived data containing the similarity index rates of TurnItIn reports were collected in the first semester of the year 2013 for two cohorts of 122 graduate and 118 postgraduate students before and after the implementation of TurnItIn reports in online classes. The findings revealed that the implementation of TurnItIn reduced unoriginal writing in graduate and postgraduate online classes. A statistical significant difference between the means of the two cohorts of similarity index rates of TurnItIn was found. The empirical evidence was that the implementation of TurnItIn has helped the online institution’s administration and faculty members at the research site to reduce unoriginal writing. Education stakeholders may use these findings to improve academic integrity.