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Ouriginal replaces Turnitin!

The recent Plagiarism Detection Tool (also know as a Similarity Detection Tool) RFP has concluded and Ouriginal was selected to replace Turnitin as UofT's official tool. This blog links to the official memo and provides some guidance on what to do now and how to get the support you need to transition to the new tool.

From the August 27, 2021 Academic and Collaborative Technology Memo (see University of Toronto's Plagiarism Detection Tool memo for full version):

After extensive community consultation through a public procurement process, the University of Toronto is pleased to announce that we will be partnering with a company called Ouriginal to be our new provider of a plagiarism detection tool (PDT) beginning September 1, 2021. Ouriginal is a similarity detection solution that combines text-matching with writing-style analysis to promote academic integrity and help prevent plagiarism. The company is based out of Sweden, with more than three decades of experience.

Since the University adopted Quercus in 2017, instructors and students no longer interact directly with a PDT. Instead, they interact with something called the Canvas Plagiarism Framework, which is built directly into the Quercus assignment experience. In this way, the PDT serves more like an behind-the-scenes engine. As a result, adopting Ouriginal as our PDT will not result in any significant changes to the instructor or student workflow. However, the formatting of the similarity report will be slightly different, and support staff will be available to answer any questions instructors may have.

Finally, as part of the community consultation process, it was clear that one of the major considerations for instructors was the ability to check new submissions against previously submitted work for the same course (to prevent ‘hand-me-down’ assignments). Our new PDT will continue to check against previously submitted work, in some cases, going back almost 15 years.

What should I do right now?

  1. Revise your syllabus statement if you currently mention Turnitin. For full information about how to use a plagiarism detection tool in your course, please see CTSI's frequently asked questions about UofT's Plagiarism Detection tool. As per the guidelines stated on the CTSI website, instructors must include the following passage (as is) on the course outline at the start of the class. Please note that the statement cannot be altered in any way.
    1. “Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to the University’s plagiarism detection tool for a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so, students will allow their essays to be included as source documents in the tool’s reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University’s use of this tool are described on the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation web site (https://uoft.me/pdt-faq).”
  2. Download the Turnitin Similarity Reports from current classes. You might need them as part of an academic integrity investigation. 
  3. Do not use Turnitin. There may be some legacy mentions of Turnitin as Quercus and documentation is updated. Ensure that you use Ouriginal.

Where I can get support to transition from Turnitin to Ouriginal?

  1. Attend a training session (Announced soon!)
  2. Review the Ouriginal documentation published on the Quercus Support Resource (QSR) by ACT.
  3. Contact the ETO (fase.edtech@utoronto.ca)
  4. Book a consultation
Article Category: Announcements