Press Release

2nd November, 2006

Coursework.Info has announced today that it is now providing free access to all of its 130,000 essays, to academics teaching students with special educational needs, learning difficulties and disabilities.

Coursework.Info is the biggest coursework library in the UK with over half a million visitors a month. It's an educational website where GCSE, A-level, International Baccalaureate and university students give permission for their coursework to be viewed online in exchange for access to others' work.

Pete Taylor operations director said; "We have recently received such positive feedback from special needs teachers using Coursework.Info with their students that we have decided to offer free access as a way of helping this often-disadvantaged group of students."

Carolyn Hunt a disabilities tutor at a Staffordshire university said; "I am a tutor working with students who have either hearing or sight problems. The blind students have multiple problems accessing both the material presented to them in class and textbooks. The deaf students have great difficulty accessing the verbal material presented in class."

"I have been using [Coursework.Info] to provide both good and bad examples of the coursework expected from them. For example, a few years ago I had deaf students who were asked to compare the characterisation in a Jane Eyre film with that in the novel. They had no idea how to approach this question and had not understood much of the lesson. I accessed your site and printed off copies of some comparisons for the Animal Farm book and film. Once they had read these, they had a much clearer idea of what was needed and both pupils gained an A grade for that piece of work."

"The blind students really benefit from being able to access the material online. They can use various screen readers to either magnify the text or read the text to them. I have used coursework advice books but I have been unable to get the publishers to release the e copies and so needed to read the books to the students and they needed to try to memorise the parts they needed. This is a very difficult task for them and very time consuming for me. With your service I can download the relevant information and they can refer and re-refer to the information. It allows them their independence which is very important."

Neil Moorhouse, Dyslexia support tutor at South Notts college also explains how his students benefit from Coursework.Info, he said; "I find it helpful to use sample essay questions to give [my students] a sense of purpose in their revision. Sample essay answers can prove useful in terms of illustrating paragraph structure and in modelling more effective expression of their ideas. I'm keen at all times to prevent students from plagiarising, I do advocate that they gain useful hints re structure and expression from sources such as your own, but only so that they can better express their own ideas."

Mr Taylor said, "We receive a lot of feedback from teachers about the educational benefits of Coursework.Info, but we have had a recent wave of comments from grateful tutors of students with special educational needs. We are delighted that with this offer even more people with special educational needs will be able to benefit from our service."

Coursework.Info announced recently that all 130,000 of its essays are being added to TurnItInUK

Editor's notes:

• Carolyn Hunt has asked her University not to be identified to protect the privacy of her students; she can be contacted by journalists on 01782 522337.
• Mr Pete Taylor is the Operations Director of Acumen PI, the holding company which owns www.TheStudentRoom.co.uk and www.Coursework.Info. He is 28 years old and lives in Bristol with his partner and two young children.
• Coursework.Info is the largest coursework library in the UK.
• It is an educational website where GCSE, A Level, IB and University students give permission for their coursework to be viewed online in exchange for access to others' work.
• It contains over 130,000 pieces of coursework, and receives 550,000 visits by students each month.
• For student and teacher testimonials to the benefit of the site see our testimonials page
• Coursework.Info actively discourages plagiarism and offers students clear guidelines on what plagiarism actually is and how to avoid it.
• Acumen PI was the first and only UK Coursework Library to provide all its essays to TurnItIn's world leading plagiarism detection software - a service managed in the UK by JISC's Plagiarism Advisory Service. It is also actively pursuing a Code of Conduct for the industry, with UK Government and education sector authorities.
• Acumen PI also owns www.TheStudentRoom.co.uk - the largest student discussion room in the UK, and one of the largest of the next generation of social networking sites.
• About iParadigms www.iparadigms.com
  iParadigms, LLC (www.iparadigms.com) is the leading provider of web-based solutions to check documents for originality, plagiarism, and for misappropriation. The company's products include: Turnitin® (www.turnitin.com), an internet service used by millions of students and faculty in over 90 countries to vet academic work for originality, enable web-based student collaboration, and provide cutting-edge tools for digital assessment of academic work; and iThenticate TM (www.ithenticate.com), an internet service which enables publishers, news agencies, corporations, law firms, and government agencies to detect piracy or misuse of proprietary information and to conduct document originality due diligence. iParadigms is headquartered in Oakland, CA
• About the JISC Plagiarism Advisory Service (PAS) www.jiscpas.ac.uk
  The JISC PAS provides generic advice and guidance on all aspects of plagiarism prevention and detection for academics and students to around 700 further and higher education institutions in the UK. The service promotes a holistic approach to plagiarism prevention incorporating the consideration of institutional policies and procedures, teaching practice and study skills. The JISC PAS is managed by Northumbria Learning.