Marking with Turnitin in the new iPad App

Yes folks, the all new Turnitin iPad App has arrived in the Apple iTunes App store! So, before I go on my holiday to Northumbria, I thought I would give you a brief run down of what it can do and how to go about using it

Firstly ... What are the potential benefits?

Off-line: You can mark without needing an Internet connection. As long as you have power in the iPad then that is all you need to start marking. There is one caveat: To sync things up with the main system you will need a wifi connection. Both to download the assignments, and once you have finished your marking.

Flexibility: The iPad allows you to mark wherever you choose. You don't need to be tied to an office desktop.

Speed: I have only used the iPad App briefly, so am intrigued to see how other users find it. I can see the process of marking through a number of papers being much quicker than on the desktop equivalent. This is due to both how you move through the papers (the two fingers side swipe), and how you use your fingers to put the QuickMarks and feedback commentary on the paper itself.

Access: Access is easy once the Turnitin App is set up. Switch on the iPad, access the App and you're ready to go. No need to log into the desktop, wait for everything to load, access MOLE, find your assignment etc etc.

Secondly... Setting up the App

Firstly you will need to download the App itself from the iTunes App store. I searched for "Turnitin", which brought it up immediately.

The most important step in the set up, and one we missed initially, is to go to the iPad settings (below), select the Turnitin App and then change the default setting to "Turnitin UK".

Now you can open up the Turnitin App. You will see the following screen:

For now at least, we can ignore the "user name" and log-in information. All we need to do is enter an access code. How do we get that? Well you will need your desktop for this bit...

1. Log into MOLE from your desktop or laptop Access the Module that contains the Turnitin assignment(s) you want to mark.
2. Access the Turnitin assignment inbox.
3. Open up the GradeMark report viewer using any one of your student submitted assignments.
4. In the GradeMark report itself, look for the iPad icon, between the "i" and print icons at the bottom left of the screen.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Click on the icon to reveal an access code.
6. Enter this access code (should be a series of 16 letters grouped in 4s) into the iPad app under "access code". It doesn't appear to be case sensitive.
7. Select the MOLE  account, then your module.
8. You will now see all the Turnitin assignments set up inside that module.

Finally.... Marking

There are four main features here. They are exactly the same features you would find in the desktop version, but with slightly different (read:easier) access. We have: comments marks and highlights, voice comments, Originality report access and grading using Rubrics.

When you first click on an assignment you will need to choose "sync papers". This allows you to download all the papers from that assignment to begin marking...

Comments marks and highlights:

When you have finished syncing all you have to do is click on a particular paper that you wish to mark. This will open up the paper. You can then simply pop your finger onto the screen, leave it a second or two and you get the choice of putting in a QuickMark, free text comment or strike through text. Below I have chosen a free text comment, which is highlighted in yellow. You can move the iPad text sliders to choose which text you want to highlight. In addition you can also select to write an in line comment.

Originality report scores and matches:

Choosing the graph icon at the top right gives you the option of viewing the originality report score for the submissions and any matching text is highlighted.

Voice comment and general comments:

Clicking the pencil icon brings up a window allowing you to leave a voice comment, some general commentry and to add a grade (left hand side). You also get some statistical information regarding the paper, including word count and date/time of submission, down the left hand side of this screen.

Rubrics:

If you have attached a Rubric to this assignment (you must do this from the desktop version of Turnitin), you can access it here. If you have chosen a quantitative Rubric, you can select from the various criteria to allow Turnitin to calculate the grade for you. For more information on Rubrics click here.

Moving through papers:

When you have finished grading the assignment you can use the two finger swipe from right to left to move onto the next paper (very handy!). This could be a key time saver in my opinion.

Sync:

Once you have finished completing marking, and you are marking offline, you will need to press the sync button once connected to a wifi connection. To do this select the circular arrow at the top right hand side of the main screen and click "synchronize now".

If you are marking whilst connected to a wifi connection then the sync will happen automatically.

Right that's my whistle stop tour to the new iPad app... Stay tuned for more information on this and all things Turnitin over the new academic year.

Ciao for now

James