The Perception of Students towards the Use of Turn-It-In Software in Detecting Plagiarism in Public Universities in Ghana.

Abstract

In post-secondary education, academic misconduct has been a long-standing concern and is commonly acknowledged as a complex problem related to individual, institutional, and societal factors. This study examined the perception of students towards the use of the Turn-It-In software in detecting plagiarism in public universities in Ghana. The study specifically assessed the students’ knowledge concerning plagiarism and their awareness, usage and perception about the use of Turn-It-In software in detecting plagiarism. The study also examined the students’ computer literacy skills, their perceived ease of use of the Turn-It-In software, and the challenges they face in using the software. The research is helpful to the management of both University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, educational professionals and policy makers

The research was based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The study employed the quantitative research methodology and the exploratory research design. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 276 respondents out of a sample of 344 students, giving a response rate of 80.23%. The College of Humanities and College of Health Sciences from both University of Ghana (UG) and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) were specifically targeted. Convenience sampling technique was adopted, data was collected using a questionnaire and were analyzed using SPSS version 22.

The findings disclosed that the students were fully conscious of plagiarism and they had a good knowledge of plagiarism acts. The results also revealed that the students were conscious of the presence in their various universities of the Turn-It-In software used to detect plagiarism. Their channels of awareness of the Turn-It-In software were through information gathered from their lecturers, friends, Teaching Assistants and their universities’ orientation programmes. The findings further revealed that the students perceived the Turn-It-In software to be beneficial to their academic activities. The students found it easy to use the Turn-It-In software and they preferred using it for checking the originality of their work as compared to other means of detecting plagiarism. Finally, the finding showed that the students had the computer literacy ability required to adequately utilize the Turn-It-In software. However, the major challenges faced by the students in their usage of the Turn-It-In software were: inadequate training on the usage of the software and system errors leading to the inability to access the Turn-It-In system. In conclusion, to mitigate the incidence of plagiarism among the graduate students of UG and KNUST, effective policies should be implemented to ensure the maximum use of the Turn-It-In software for plagiarism control.