Whew, 2020, am I right? What can we even say here? 2020 was a doozy! But I do think it’s important to try to find the good, to look for the light amidst the darkness. One bright spot, for me, was seeing how we adapted to challenging circumstances. How people found creative, safe, and loving ways to celebrate events and milestones; how we used the tools of technology to connect across the physical barriers we faced; how we rallied to support those in need. My father scanned picture books and made Slide decks, sharing his screen, so he could read books to my nephew!

And educators? The way educators pivoted to remote learning with no notice and did their absolute best to teach, guide, and care for their students this year? Truly inspiring. I have heard so many stories of educators going above and beyond to make sure their students had the best possible experiences this year. I have cried over Twitter threads, in awe of the compassion and dedication educators have shown.

As part of educators’ dedication to their work, many turned to thought leaders in education for support, including Turnitin. Here’s a round-up of some of your favorite blog posts from this year.

1. 5 Things You Need to Know About Remote Assessments With Integrity We all know that remote learning brought a number of challenges to education this year, including to academic integrity. This blog offers a quick introduction to common challenges and offers tips on delivering remote assessment while maintaining academic integrity.
2. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Turnitin Eric Wang, Director of Machine Learning at Turnitin, wrote this fascinating piece on AI and machine learning, and how those tools are used by Turnitin to help improve student writing, streamline grading and feedback, and identify threats to academic integrity.
3. How to Address Inequities in Remote Learning One challenge many educators faced this year was how to reach every student when teaching remotely, especially those facing unique challenges brought on by the pandemic. This blog helps unpack some of those challenges and how educators can help students facing them.
4. Encouraging Academic Integrity Throughout the Writing Process Challenges to academic integrity and originality crop up at every stage of the writing process. This post explores how to teach academic integrity at every stage, as well as how to reinforce the skills and learning throughout the process, not just at the end.
5. How to Prevent Contract Cheating in Remote Learning As educators work to combat the growing trend of contract cheating, they faced new challenges this year in the pivot to remote learning. This blog discusses some of the unique threats of contract cheating in remote learning and how educators can address them.
6. Why Is It Important to Update Honor Codes For Online Learning Environments? Honor codes have a proven impact on upholding academic integrity. If your institution’s honor code was created with in-person learning in mind, it’s probably due for an update. This post discusses why.
7. How Will I Assess Students Remotely? This blog asks the question that many educators faced almost immediately, as lockdowns began just before midterms. With links to some of the webinars Turnitin presented to support educators, there’s a lot of guidance to be found in this article on remote assessment.
8. How to Build Community in an Online Classroom One unique challenge educators tackled in 2020 was cultivating community and students’ sense of belonging in the digital classroom. This blog offers some guidance on how educators can best create that sense of togetherness when we cannot physically be together.
9. What Can Assessment Do For Student Learning? This past year, we spoke a lot on the topic of assessment, including in our second most popular blog of the year. We know assessment can offer educators meaningful data on student learning, but this blog explores how that data can best be leveraged to make assessments a valuable tool for furthering the students’ growth and learning.
10. How to Uphold Academic Integrity in Remote Learning This blog post addressed one of educators’ top concerns in 2020 – maintaining a culture of academic integrity while apart. It’s no wonder that this was our most popular post this past year, as it addressed the question in a holistic manner, looking at all the angles to maintaining academic integrity in the digital classroom.

One thing to be said about 2020: We all certainly learned a lot. We are so grateful to all the educators who made that learning possible. And no matter what 2021 brings, we can thoughtfully bring that gratitude with us as we begin a new chapter. So, whether it's sharing a blog you enjoyed, making a quick phone call to reconnect, or simply writing an email to say thank you, let's express our gratitude wholly and readily for the goodness we know is there.

Posted on the Turnitin Blog on 7 January 2021. To read more great stories visit the blog here.