Online submission of student
assessments:
Student procedures 2010-2011
Introduction
1. These procedures supplement the University’s policy regarding ‘The online
submission of student assessments 2010-2011’ and provide guidance to students for the
submission of assessments (generally termed ‘assignments’) via myCourse and the
TurnitinUK software facility.
Online submission
2. It is now University policy that text based assessments should normally be submitted
online from Period Two 2010-2011. This means that instead of handing in an assignment
at the faculty office, students can upload it online to myCourse/Turnitin by the deadline
date for submission. Student work can be accepted in the following file types:
MS Word (.doc and .docx), WordPerfect (.wpd), PostScript (.eps), Portable
Document Format (.pdf), HTML (.htm or .html), Rich Text (.rtf) and Plain
Text (.txt).
The file size must not exceed 20MB; this is appropriate capacity for text alone but any
extensive incorporation of images may prove challenging. As part of their normal support
processes the Learning and Information Service (LIS) will offer advice and guidance to
students on the electronic compression of embedded images and attachments.
3. Not all text based assessments will be suitable for processing in electronic format.
Faculties are identifying assignments that meet the criterion and Unit Leaders will confirm
on the Assignment Brief for Period Two whether submission is online or in hard copy via
the faculty office. Students are advised to contact the relevant tutor if they have any
questions about the method of submission for any of their assignments.
4. Where an assignment is designated for online processing, students must submit their
assignments electronically via the University’s virtual learning environment, myCourse.
Most students will be accustomed to accessing myCourse and will have worked with
varying forms of assessments online previously. The University has trialled and piloted
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online submission in prior academic years and feedback from students has been positive;
the process offers increased flexibility, particularly for part-time students who are not on
campus regularly.
5. Where assignments are designated for online submission, they must be submitted in
electronic format; students cannot choose to hand in a hard copy of the assignment at the
faculty office instead.
Deadline for submission
6. The deadline date for submission will be specified in the assignment brief.
Assignments must be submitted to myCourse/Turnitin by 2200 hours on the due date; any
assignment submitted after that date will be ‘late’ and subject to academic penalties in
accordance with the University’s Assessment Policy regarding the late submission of
coursework. Students are advised to submit in advance of the final deadline whenever
possible.
7.
All time deadlines are British local time.
Submission process
8. Links to guidance on the uploading of assignments are available within the individual
unit site on ‘myCourse’. Online submission will involve the use of the TurnitinUK plagiarism
detection software. Turnitin provides an originality report on work submitted which
highlights text that may be plagiarised. Students are permitted to submit their work via
myCourse as many times as they wish before the assignment due date, with each submission
over-writing the previous version. At the deadline date the version that is in Turnitin will
be taken as the student’s final submission. Students are encouraged to use Turnitin to
support good academic practice in ensuring that all work is appropriately referenced and
acknowledged. Guidance on obtaining and interpreting Turnitin originality reports that
indicate any potentially plagiarised work is also available on the myCourse upload page and
on the succeed@solent web site within myCourse.
Guidance on use of Turnitin reports
9. Students are reminded that Turnitin is not a plagiarism detection service; it is a text
matching facility. It compares work submitted with a document database drawn from a
wide range of resources and produces ‘matched text reports’ that highlight areas of text
that match work available elsewhere. These reports still require interpretation regarding
any content that may be plagiarised, either accidentally or intentionally. Areas
highlighted may already be referenced, or the report may act as a useful reminder of
areas where the author has overlooked appropriate acknowledgement of other people’s
work. Students are reminded that when a batch of assignments is submitted on the same
topic it is likely that there will be an increase in matched text identified since a number
of students will have added work with the same title and probably similar phraseology.
10. Turnitin is currently utilised as part of the online submission process in order to
support students in developing good academic practice. Where student work is
subsequently identified as potentially being plagiarised then students are subject to the
processes outlined in the University policy on student academic misconduct. Full guidance
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on interpreting Turnitin reports and academic misconduct is accessible within ‘MyCourse’ at
the unit submission point.
11. Further information on the Turnitin product is available at: http://www.submit.ac.uk
Assignment cover sheet
12. When submitting the final version of their work, students must complete an electronic
assignment cover sheet which will be available at the submission point on myCourse. This
mirrors the hard copy cover sheet normally completed at faculty offices, confirms the
integrity of the work and provides opportunity to indicate where specific feedback may be
required.
13. Assignment cover sheets must be completed as an essential part of the final
submission process. This confirms that the work uploaded is the work intended for
marking. Students who have submitted drafts to Turnitin but subsequently need to submit
late or apply for extenuating circumstances, should take action as in paragraphs (18) and
(26) below.
Format and Layout
14. Students must include the following personal information within their assignment so
that, if downloaded and printed, the work can be readily identified:
In Header:
Student Name/Student Number/Unit Number
In Footer:
Page numbering in format ‘Page X of X pages’.
Anonymity
15. The University has decided that for Period Two of this current academic year,
students should not submit their work anonymously. This is a temporary arrangement
whilst the University and students become accustomed to using the new version of
Turnitin and develop processes to handle online submission and tracking in the most
efficient way.
Group work
16. Where students are submitting a joint assignment as part of a piece of group work,
the student number for each member of the group must be stated on the assignment cover
sheet. One member of the group should then submit the assignment on behalf of the
group using their personal name and student number in the header/footer of the
assignment putting ‘group rep’ after their name. The assignment will then be marked as a
piece of group work.
17. Students are advised that where a piece of group work has been submitted by a
single member, the Turnitin originality report and the marked work can only be accessed
and returned electronically to that individual student. It is therefore important that the
nominated member of the group is available within the feedback timescale.
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Extenuating Circumstances (EC)
18. In accordance with the University’s policy on extenuating circumstances, students
who wish to make a claim for EC should not submit any work online as a final submission.
Students may have submitted some draft work up to the point they determine they are not
‘fit to study’. In order that University staff can be clear that the work is not for
assessment and that the student is not ‘fit to study’ an EC notification form (available on
the site) must be submitted by the deadline date. This confirms that a student is not
intending to complete the work and will submit a completed EC submission form with
evidence to the faculty office for consideration by the next Extenuating Circumstances
Panel.
19. It is possible that the nature of the circumstances may mean the student cannot
access IT facilities and add an EC notification form e.g. a student may be hospitalised. In
these circumstances the student must hand in their EC application to the faculty office as
soon as possible after the incident and the EC panel will make a decision regarding the
validity of the submission based on the circumstances and the evidence provided.
Final submission
20. Students are encouraged to submit draft work to Turnitin in order to check academic
integrity and are reminded that the latest piece of work available at the deadline date
will be assessed. Therefore students need to be sure that the piece of work submitted by
the deadline date is the final version and are advised to check work carefully prior to
completing the electronic assignment cover sheet.
Receipt
21. Students who submit work online will receive a digital email receipt and can see their
submission on screen, confirming that it has successfully uploaded. Students who are in
any way concerned about the completeness of the submission process may wish to forward
a final version of their assignment to their student e-mail account as additional evidence
of the work being completed by the deadline date.
IT Difficulties
22. Personal IT difficulties are not accepted as extenuating circumstances. Students are
therefore advised to plan to submit their assignments online in advance of the deadline
date. This will allow time to pursue any queries or problems arising as a result of
submission.
23. Students experiencing problems with online submission can get assistance from a
Learning Resource Centre Helpdesk; opening hours will be available on the student portal.
24. In the event that there is any significant issue with University IT systems at the point
of submission the University will inform students of alternative arrangements. Students
will be alerted to these via appropriate communication channels (e-mail, text message or
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messages on the myCourse home screen and portal). Solutions will normally involve a
delayed deadline and not hard copy submission.
Disabled students
25. It is not anticipated that special needs students will be impacted adversely in any
way through the introduction of online submission. However if a student considers they do
not have equality of opportunity as the result of a personal disability issue then they must
contact Students 1st as soon as possible so that appropriate support requirements can be
addressed.
Late work
26. Where students are processing assessments after the deadline date, the electronic
cover sheet must be completed with the work and submitted through the additional ‘late’
assessment facility on the unit site. All late work submitted online remains subject to
academic penalties in accordance with the University’s assessment regulations.
Assignments submitted more than five working days after the deadline will not be
downloaded and assessed.
Assignment marking and feedback
27. Academic staff will select to mark student assessments online or they may choose to
mark using downloaded hard copy. Work will therefore be returned to students either
electronically or in the normal way, having been assessed in accordance with the
University’s Assessment Practice policy.
Data Protection
28. Turnitin is an external database and work uploaded to it may be stored
electronically indefinitely and compared against work submitted to it by this university
and other UK institutions using the service. Under the Data Protection Act you may object
to your personal details being transferred to a third party. Until the University introduces
anonymous submission for online hand the only personal information disclosed is the
student name. Students will therefore be asked to confirm their approval to the
disclosure of their name when they submit their assessment.
29. Students are advised that they may object to the processing of their data in
circumstances in which it might cause them substantial distress but cannot object to the
University’s use of plagiarism software itself to support, or investigate, matters relating to
academic misconduct. If a student wishes to withhold permission for the processing of
named work then they are asked to contact their Faculty Registrar at the earliest
opportunity so that arrangements can be made to submit the work anonymously on an
individual basis. Failure to do so will result in a non-submission for that assessment.
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