Turnitin Adds Voice Comments to GradeMark for Faster Grading and More Substantive Feedback on Student Writing

OAKLAND, Calif., May 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Turnitin, the global leader in originality checking and online grading, today announced the release of Voice Comments, a simple and efficient way for instructors to offer feedback on student writing. The new Voice Comments feature better engages students in the writing process by providing them with clear, personalized and substantive feedback, while saving instructors time during the grading process by eliminating the need to type comments. Voice Comments is currently available in beta version within GradeMark, Turnitin's award-winning online grading tool.

A recorded webcast, "More than Words: Using Voice Comments to Provide Effective Feedback," reviews the new Voice Comments feature in GradeMark. Watch it now at: http://pages.turnitin.com/Plag_0508_archive.html.

"The Voice Comments feature in GradeMark is easy, intuitive and can save instructors grading time," said Cindy Raisor, instructor at Texas A&M University. "Voice Comments not only increase the quality of the feedback I leave on student papers but also increase the chances that the student will take the feedback to heart."

"With the addition of Voice Comments to GradeMark, educators can save even more time grading online and give students more personalized feedback," said Chris Caren, chairman and CEO of Turnitin. "Compared to written feedback, Voice Comments allow students to better understand their instructor's thought process when grading, the context and tone of the comments, and why they received the grade they did on a given assignment."

The speed in which Voice Comments are recorded make them especially useful for giving feedback in large online classes and for distance learning instructors who rarely have the opportunity to speak to their students. Adding a voice comment is a personal, direct means of speaking to students individually and encourages student-teacher engagement.

"GradeMark has increased the quality of my feedback on student papers while reducing the time I spend grading by fifty percent," said Summer Dittmer, English instructor at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, CA. "The addition of Voice Comments gives me broader options to engage more deeply with my students."

To learn more about Turnitin and its new Voice Comments feature, please visit www.turnitin.com. 

About Turnitin

Turnitin is the world's leading web-based solution for plagiarism prevention, used by educators worldwide to check students' papers for originality, to enable web-based peer review and for digital grading of student work. The Turnitin product family includes iThenticate, the leader in plagiarism detection in research, publishing and other commercial markets. Together, these solutions check millions of documents each month and are used in over 100 countries. Turnitin is a registered trademark of iParadigms, LLC, headquartered in Oakland, CA with an international office located in Newcastle, United Kingdom. iParadigms is backed by Warburg Pincus.  http://www.turnitin.com and http://www.ithenticate.com

SOURCE Turnitin