JD Homework Assignments Going Digital [ArticleImageHyperLink] Tuesday, December 13, 2011 By Kelsey Watnes Advertising         Click! And with that simple push of a button, a homework assignment is completed and submitted. Many Juan Diego Catholic High School students are opting for a computer to turn in their assignments rather than a hand-to-hand transaction of a hard copy. Teachers are making this option more available to students through websites like turnitin.com and classes.skaggscatholiccenter.org (more commonly known as moodle). However, it is not always an option but rather a requirement for students to use these sites to submit their work. While moodle is becoming the more preferred choice for assignment submission, turnitin.com has been around JD for a while. “Turnitin.com was something that was introduced here at Juan Diego about three years ago and we, frankly, use it because we have accounts with turnitin,” said JD English teacher Bryan Jeffreys. “A lot of people think turnitin is only a plagiarism checker. And that is, in part, what it is, but there are other functions.”        Jeffreys says he does not manage paper well and prefers having it digitally because he can then access the assignments wherever he wants without the hassle of dragging papers everywhere. Turnitin is used by teachers and professors across America.  As stated by the U.S. News and World report rankings, 69% of colleges and universities and 56% of U.S high schools use turnitin.         Dr. Jim Duane, head of technology at Juan Diego, says that this is one of the main reasons he introduced it to the school. He knew that most students plan on going to college, and colleges use websites like this. Since its introduction, this website has taken off in the school. “About half of the teachers use [online submitting] with more all the time,” said Duane.          The main reason for the growth of electronic submitting is very simple: because they can. “There is a license for all the students [on turnitin],” said Duane. “There is one license per student but they can add as many classes as they want.” It also does not hurt that the website is an efficient plagiarism, spelling, and grammar checker. Some students prefer turning in a hard copy, but others like online submitting because of the convenience and (sometimes) the extra time they get to turn it in, and some are torn between the two. Freshman Jade McCoy uses turnitin for her Honor Ancient Civilizations class. ”It can be an advantage if your printer stops working,” she said. “But it’s a disadvantage if your Internet stops working.” It is hard to deny the presence of online submitting at Juan Diego, not to mention the wonder of what is yet to come when moodle is fully established. “These technologies have to be dynamic in that technology has to change, “ Jeffreys said. “Someone else is going to come out with a better product that meets more of our needs. I think moodle might be a better answer than turnitin. I don’t know, we’ll have to see. I think everyone needs to go into it understanding that it’s not the end-all be-all. That we’re going to have issues and I think it can only make it make things run more smoothly.” Whether moodle becomes the major website for online submitting or turnitin remains on top, one thing seems certain: online submitting is here to stay.

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