IMPLEMENTING ANTI-PLAGIARISM POLICY A CASE STUDY OF THE FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, MINNA, NIGERIA By Prof. Wole Morenikeji (TURNITIN Administrator FUTMINNA)

ABOUT Nigeria Location: West Africa Population : About 160 Million Number of Universities: 129 Number of Polytechnics & COE: Over 300 Official Language: English Local Languages: About 500

ABOUT FUTMinna One of the 4 the four specialised universities of technology established in 1983 Focus on science and technology education. Seven schools (faculties) – engineering, agriculture, environmental, science education, education technology, entrepreneurship, and information & communication technology. Student population is about 16,000.

BACKGROUND & CHALLENGE OF PLAGIARISM IN NIGERIA (FUTMinna) Plagiarism Challenge Online – Google, search engines e.t.c Online - Wikipedia Offline by copying fellow students within the same school or from other schools

FUTMinna APPROACH AT TACKLING PLAGIARISM Sample opinion of other colleagues and students Compare the level of originality of the academic work in minna with other schools Analyze the common types of plagiarism issues in FUT Minna Internal Factors Collect data of number of students caught copying others Develop draft plagiarism policy Requested for Turnitin Pilot test alongside others Research different types of plagiarism methods used by the students Study anti plagiarism policy information available online and through contacts with colleagues abroad Research the market on anti plagiarism External Factors TURNITIN WAS SELECTED AS THE PREFERRED TOOL

PRE- IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES 1 2 3 4 5 6 Resistance from Academics & Students – Mainly due to lack of understanding how it works not because they don’t like it Issues with training all the instructors/Lecturers Ensuring that the lecturers actually check originality report Developing the anti Plagiarism policy in FUT Minna and being able to advocate for National anti plagiarism policy Scanning and digitalizing all past projects and dissertations National Anti Plagiarism Policy?????? Still a challenge

IMPLEMENTATION CYCLE Methodology Methodology 1 9 2 3 8 4 7 6 5 Identification of the Project, research of the solutions in the market, identification of potential champions be 9 Project Closure/Monitoring and Evaluation 2 Stakeholders Engagement/Advocacy to the Ecosystem 3 Development of Anti Plagiarism Policy 8 Another Round of Training 4 7 Digitalization of over 30,000 Dissertations which is about 2,400,000 pages. Set up of the Anti plagiarism Committee 6 Post Implementation trial of the solution using only Phd students as pilot 5 Turnitin Implementation & Training – ORACO Methodology

POST IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGESCHALLENGES 1 2 3 4 5 6 Putting everything in quote: It was reported that some students were getting unusually low similarity index score because they put most of their thesis write up in quote that are not found on the hard copies. Slow progress – Resistance to change management, Even after enlightenment campaigns, the diffusion process was very slow as most instructors failed to create classes and register their students Who takes charge: Who carries out the originality test and whose test report is authentic? Standardisation: Standardising these report format in terms of what to supress (filter) is another challenge Forging of report: Some Departments do not care where the originality reports come from, they are only interested in looking for the similarity index Anti-turnitin software? Feedbacks from our instructors indicate that the students have discovered a software called “Article Spinner” which can “confuse” turnitin and return very low similarity index for students’ write-up. We are yet to verify this.

HOW WE ARE ADDRESSING THESE CHALLENGES Anti plagiarism Advisers for the Schools (Faculties) and Departments have been appointed The Adviser for each Department will enrol all final year students from undergraduate to post-graduate level writing projects In between registration and final date (deadline), students are free to turn in their write ups and effect corrections After deadline, Adviser will produce the originality reports of the students Training will be intensified and each project/theses supervisor will take over the responsibility of producing originality test reports of their students. All instructor will also be in position to create classes for courses they are teaching and request students to turn in every written essay/assignment Courses such as General Studies and Research Methods are to place further emphasis on the art of referencing and plagiarism avoidance. New guidelines on what to and not to filter when checking the results Continuous review meetings, advocacy campaigns and trainings Internal capacity development through the Turnitin Champions

FUTMinna SENATE APPROVED SIMILARITY INDEX Ph.D – 10% Masters – 15% Undergraduate – 20% This is to take care of the over-sensitivity of the software even after the filter facility of the software has been employed

PLAGIARISM REDUCTION IN FUTMinna – THE RESULTS 2011/2012 SESSION 1843 Turnitin reports were generated and 276 (14.98%) had similarity index of 75% and above. 2012/2013 SESSION 2453 Turnitin report was generated and 746 (30.41%) have similarity index of 75% and above 2013/2014 SESSION: In 7 months of 2013/2014 2820 reports have been generated so far with on 204 (7.28%) having similarity index of 75% and above It must however be noted that category of papers in “no matches” has not improved as expected as only 2.3% belong to this category

FUTMinna PERFORMANCE IN RANKING FUTMinna was rated A+ in the first NUC University Accreditation FUTMinna moved from 24th to 16th and now to 4th position on the 4ICU ranking By January 2014, FUTMinna was rated in the top 100 University in Africa It must however be noted that category of papers in “no matches” has not improved as expected as only 2.3% belong to this category

Thank You.