Cari Lara

OMDE 603 Section 9040

15NOV2015
How Turnitin will benefit Expeditionary Warfare School
1778
How Turnitin Will Benefit Expeditionary Warfare School
The military has always been at the forefront of technological
advances, however the focus is usually on weapons. While weapons are still
of vital importance, recently more focus has been given to the warfighter
themselves. Moore and Kearsley (2012) describe the origins of distance
education and the early technologies used, with the military having a role in
early distance education. What began as just the United States Army
Institute in 1941, further evolved into the United States Armed Forces
Institute and eventually to the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education
Support in 1974, (Moore and Kearsley, 2012, p. 28). Today, each branch has
its own specific institution for education and their own ways of developing,
teaching, assessing, and applying course work. This paper will focus on the
Marine Corps University (MCU), under the Marine Corps Training and
Education Command (TECOM), as part of the United States Marine Corps
(USMC). As stated on their webpage, The mission of Marine Corps
University is to develop, deliver, and evaluate professional military education
and training through resident and nonresident programs to prepare leaders
to meet the challenges of the national security environment. Preserve,

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promote, and display the history and heritage of the Marine Corps, (Marine
Corps University, n.d.). In order to accomplish this mission, they have five
goals in place, with the third focused solely on the integration of technology
in order to provide the best educational experience to their students (MCU,
n.s.). When looking at all five goals with the mission statement in mind, it is
clear that technology plays a vital role in this institution. The Marine Corps
University offers a variety of programs, that I will narrow down the focus to
Expeditionary Warfare School (EWS), which is offered both resident and nonresident, wherein non-resident courses are in every sense of the word
distance education. These courses are designed to be taken anywhere that
has Internet access, such as a Navy ship or while forward-deployed. They
even offer blended courses, where the student does all of the assessments
online, but participates weekly guided discussions with an instructor and
other students. From day one in the Marine Corps Marines are taught, and
required to not only memorize but live out, 14 leadership traits (USMC,
2002). While all are taken very seriously, integrity is the one leadership trait
that is constantly held above. Turnitin is a user friendly program that could
be easily integrated into both resident and nonresident courses to better
combat plagiarism and reinforce the principle of integrity.
Expeditionary Warfare School can be a very intensive program of study
that a Captain is expected, and in these days of lower promotion rates,
required to complete to be competitive for promotion to Major. In EWS
students are required to not only take multiple choice quizzes, but complete

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short answers and essays as well. Unfortunately, for some, EWS is seen only
a check in the box required for promotion, and not an opportunity to learn
and grow as a Marine Corps Officer. Therein lies the issue: some Marines do
not care enough to ensure their work is their own. Turnitin would require
students to do more critical thinking, which would create a better Marine
Officer and it would help to identify those who need some remediation with
integrity. When taking the course online or even blended, it is easy to use
the book for essay and short answer responses. This highlights one issue
with EWS in its current form, the instructors are all assigned, not volunteers,
and definitely not traditionally trained instructors as we are familiar with.
While every Marine Officer has been required to teach at some point, this is
very different than managing an online or blended course. These instructors
have their own jobs to do every day, which could be as an Infantry Officer or
a CH-53E pilot. Bates and Sangra (2011) wrote that they were surprised by
the level of complacency about the quality of teaching in most institutions,
(p. 185). I find that the same yields true for EWS. At the end of the day,
they are busy just as the students are, and may miss some unoriginal work.
Turnitin would help to combat that and put a more visible requirement on the
student to do their own work, rather than the instructor to catch them
copying straight out of the text.
Within the Department of Defense spending is always an important
topic at the top of anyones discussion list. While their pricing is private, the
Financial Times published Turnitin costs about $2 per student per year (2012).

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While that may not seem like a lot, it very quickly adds up. As a very conservative
estimation, there could easily be 3500 students a year actively enrolled in EWS.
That would come out to $7,000 per year, which is money that would need to be
taken from another part of an already stretched thin budget. My solution to this
would be a two-step process that also involves introducing Turnitin into the EWS
curriculum. Firstly, conduct a trial period for Turnitin. During that period, have two
classes, one each resident and nonresident use Turnitin for one section of EWS. By
testing out the program with both a resident and nonresident course, officials can
get more input for their decision making. This would allow Marine Corps officials the
opportunity to evaluate the usefulness of the program. Bates and Sangra (2011)
lament there is often a lack of transparency in decisions about the allocation of
money and resources in all organizations (p. 156). This perceived lack of
transparency (p. 156) cannot occur in the military, as there are strict government
oversights to monitor spending and every dollar must be accounted for. If leaders
within the Marine Corps University and TECOM support the use of Turnitin, they
would then contact the correct agency in order to move forward legally. The second
step would be to work out a government contract that allowed for an unlimited
number of students, submissions, courses, etc for a set amount of time, with the
option to renew. The program needs to be justified in order for spending to be
allocated and I believe this process allows for proof of justification. Without knowing
exactly how the pricing works, it is difficult to give specifics but I believe these two
steps would put be a start to integrating Turnitin.
Another barrier would be the students themselves. As mentioned previously,
Marines are doing EWs while deployed in Afghanistan, embarked on an aircraft
carrier, or in between field exercises in the desert of California. It is easy for

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students to use the books for their assessments and when writing essays or
responses, if not to save precious time. Using a plagiarism checking tool would
force those Marines to use and develop their critical thinking skills, but also take up
more time. I am sure there would be backlash from the students themselves.
However, one aspect of the military that is unique when compared to a more
traditional university, is that when Marines are told to do something, they do it.
Instructing Marines on the use of Turnitin and requiring it would alleviate any public
backlash.
While some Marines may be unhappy with this integration, Marine leaders
would see the many benefits. In order for a technology to be successfully
integrated, it requires a complex environment that supports change and it must
have leaders working together and developing and sharing a common vision or set
of goals for the use of technology, (Bates and Sangra, 2011, p. 84). When
presenting this technology to MCU and TECOM officials, I would not only include
some of the major benefits touched on above, but also include the benefit of
Turnitin for Marines once they leave the Marine Corps. There are many educational
benefits that are afforded to Veterans and many are taking advantage of them by
attending some level of higher education. Programs like Turnitin are becoming a
requirement for use at many colleges for both traditional and online classes. If a
Marine student is already familiar with the program, they will have one less thing to
be stressed out over. While this may seem small, I assure you that separating from
the military is a very stressful time and anything that can alleviate even a small
portion of that stress is welcome. Marine Corps officials are constantly searching for
how to better prepare Marines for civilian life. This is one program that can not only
be effectively utilized in the Marine Corps, but also in the civilian educational sector.

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As with any new program or piece of technology, there are drawbacks. One

major drawback to Turnitin is the requirement to wait 24 hours for a report to be run
on a resubmission. It is unknown if this is a software issue or some other
requirement by the developers. Marines doing EWS online and in the blended
course are still required to do their daily job, which is not simply 9-5. There are
more time requirements for a Marine Officer than for the majority of regular college
students. While exceptions are made, there are timelines that must be adhered to.
Marines would agree with Moore and Kearsley (2012) in that, As little should be left
to chance or ad hoc decision making in the implementation stage as possible (p.
99). While they are referring to the implementation stage of instructional design,
that phrase is relevant for the implementation phase of a course, i.e. when the
student is actively doing the course. The 24 hour wait period for a paper that was
resubmitted is simply an unnecessary nuisance.

Based on the arguments and examples above, Turnitin would be a

great resource for Expeditionary Warfare School and the Marine Corps
University as whole, to integrate into their courses. The Marine Corps not
only values integrity but expects it from every Marine. Turnitin would be a
valuable tool that would further support that trait and also keep the Marine
Corps University in line with their own goal of integrating technology to train
Marine leaders (Marine Corps University, n.d.).

References

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Bates, A. W., & Sangra, A. (2011). Managing technology in higher education:

Strategies for

transforming teaching and learning. San Francisco, CA:

Jossey- Bass
Marine Corps University. (n.d.). Vision statement. Retrieved from
http://www.mcu.usmc.mil/SitePages/aboutus/Vision%20Statement.aspx
Moore, M. G. & Kearsley, G. (2012). Distance education: A systems view of
online learning.
USA: Wadsworth-Cengage Learning.
United States Marine Corps. (2002). MCWP 6-11 Leading Marines. Retrieved
from http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/MCWP%20611%20Leading%20Marine.pdf
Wylie, I. (2012, April 9). Schools have the final word on plagiarism. Retrieved from
www.ft.com