Martin Soden

At Brisbane’s Griffith College, a pathway institution to Griffith University, one of the challenges for academic staff is that their students can need help with literacy skills, especially complex techniques like paraphrasing. Over the last six years they have been using Turnitin to help.

Martin Soden, Course Coordinator and Lecturer at the college, explains how Turnitin is being used to improve the quality of written submissions. He explains: “I’m using it as a proactive tool rather than a reactive tool. Students are able to submit four weeks before the final submission date to give them an idea of how their paraphrasing is. I call these milestones.” This opportunity to have multiple attempts or “milestones” to make progress with their writing and consult with their tutors has led to the achievement of better grades and fewer academic misconduct cases.

Now 100% of all assessments at Griffith College go through Turnitin, working with a Moodle integration. Soden said:

“It’s a partnership, if you like, between myself, my tutors and Turnitin. It makes an enormous difference to students when they can work on the hardest aspect of the assignment and turn their research content into words they can express. It’s all coming together beautifully.”

Martin was a Turnitin Global Award Winner in 2017