JISC

Lessons learnt

Full details of the lessons learnt during the pilot on using electronic detection software can be found in section 1.5 of the Pilot Project Report. This report also contains the recommendations on the technical issues relating to the use of electronic detection, including the following.

Ease of deployment

This will depend on the IT skills of staff and students, especially in the process of setting up and registering students. Details of staff and students reaction to the project have also been included in the report.

Ease of use

All sites reported that student submission of text is essential. However this will also be affected by the skills of staff and students, institutional processes and the availability of computers.

Software issues

It is clear that software deployed will require, local technical support and the supplier will have to have a reasonable turn-round time to deal with enquiries. In the trial, assignments took up to 24 hours to be processes, although this may not cause the major problem of markers a problem, it may not fit with the assignment process of all institutions.

Comprehensiveness

The software packages used in the pilot did not check for plagiarism of graphical material such as images, diagrams or graphs. The software used in the pilot did not currently hold copies of electronic journals and textbooks. However the software used in the pilot, does store each assignment submitted into its database of reference material for future comparison. Therefore frequently referenced papers and books will be incorporated and checked.