The advantages of integrated technology in a learning environment

St Paul’s opened its doors in 1959 to 117 boys in Years 5 to 8. Today St Paul’s boasts almost 700 students from Reception to Year 12. It is a Catholic school for boys in the Edmund Rice tradition and is also inclusive and open to many faiths and spiritual journeys. As specialists in education for boys from Reception to Year 12, the school offers a variety of approaches to suit unique learning styles. St Paul’s recognizes individuality and supports each boy to learn, grow and mature at his own pace

Turnitin and SEQTA Integration

Perry Campbell a Science Teacher at St Paul’s discussed the implementation of Turnitin into the SEQTA system.

“We were initially concerned that this would add a level of complexity to our processes, however the implementation could not have been easier. We literally ticked a few boxes and the Turnitin icon appeared in the markbook, so it was virtually seamless.”

Within a few weeks’ senior teachers were using this add-in extensively as students submitted their files to both their SEQTA assessment and the Turnitin icon. The process within SEQTA of actually setting up a Turnitin assessment option was made very simple.

Why Turnitin

Having used SEQTA for four years and grown its use of electronic communication, St Pauls’ recently integrated markbooks with Turnitin. The direction here was to enable students to pass in their work in an electronic format, which is in keeping with the incoming requirements of the South Australian Certificate of Education. Turnitin also allows teachers to check for plagiarism and ensure originality. Similar reports are sent back to students along with extensive feedback. This provides another level of feedback which only a few teachers were using previously.

Why SEQTA

With the focus on technology and new learning experiences, the school wanted to provide students with an online learning system that gave them access to a large number of resources that incorporated traditional media as well as recorded lessons, videos and links to online resources. The school also wanted to provide their teachers with a way to tailor programs to suit different learning needs. They were looking for a software program that consolidated their five existing data managements systems and provide a single platform. Importantly, they wanted to provide a space where parents, students and teachers could interact with transparency.

Perry discussed the implementation of Turnitin into the SEQTA system.

Perry Campbell a Science Teacher at St Paul’s explained:

“We wanted a platform that would grow with the school and be flexible to our needs, a one stop shop that would allow us to remove the cumbersome systems we hadto use previously” …” It allows us to help teachers work more efficiently and effectively, give students access to a learning environment they need and helps the school better engage with parents.”