Academic Policing via Top-Down Implementation of Turnitin in Pakistan: Students’ Perspective and Way Forward

Main Article Content

Adnan Rashid Athar Rashid

Abstract

The implementation of Turnitin in Pakistani academia has a top-down pattern, i.e. starting from Ph.D. and M.Phil thesis writing to the lower leve of college education. To a Pakistani student, it seems justifiably unfair to be ‘judged’ on an Originality report, at the usual culmination of her/his academic life.
         This paper attempts to probe the challenges and dynamics faced by Pakistani students and to investigate their coping strategies. In order to find out the best possible methods of educating students into academic integrity and conventions of writing, this paper scrutinizes the top-down pattern of tackling plagiarism and its implications.
         Considering student’s background, this paper explores best possibilities of using Turnitin as an invitation to students into realms of academic ethics and integrity. The paper also suggests inculcation of educational technologies, such as blogs, instructional videos, webinars etc. in order to ensure wider student participation, higher motivation and individual effective learning. The plan is to reinforce and justify use of Turnitin and establishment of a live interactive digital space, wherein students can get their questions, queries, comments and suggestions attended and responded to in a timely fashion. The paper also highlights the current practices of Turnitin (mis)use in a Pakistan, and suggests newer ways of ensuring its proper utilization to facilitate the training of individuals into a tradition of effective and standard writing.

Article Details

Section
Refereed Articles (Social Sciences)
Author Biographies

Adnan Rashid, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan

Adnan Rashid received his M.Phil. in Cognitive Linguistics from National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad, Pakistan in 2012 and is completing his Ph.D. Dissertation in Film Media Discourse at the moment. 

Athar Rashid, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan

Athar Rashid is currently pursuing a PhD in Political Science & IR at Izmir University of Economics, Turkey. His research interests include Comparative Politics, Energy Politics, Technology in teaching, Discourse Analysis, Governance and Public Policy.