Turnitin stole my sanity (And my Monday)
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If you’re an academic in the UK right now, you’re probably marking. Or putting off marking. Or talking to anyone who’ll listen about how you’re dying from marking.
And yet, somehow, it’s getting worse. Not just because we have more students, but because every technology “improvement” we’re handed actually makes the job harder.
Let’s talk about the digital marking systems that were supposed to make life easier. You know the ones: Turnitin, GradeMark, every “solution” that claims to “streamline assessment workflows.” Instead, they’ve created more work, more clicking, and less time for what actually matters.
The hidden cost of convenience
Here’s the business school phrase for what’s happening: the “hidden cost of convenience.” This isn’t about grumbling for the sake of it. It’s about how technology, sold to us as a time-saver, quietly shifts extra work onto the end user (that’s us) while admin teams are scaled back. Every step that “just takes a second” adds up to days - DAYS! - of extra work across the marking season.
Let’s break it down:
Marking on paper:
Read the script. Jot a mark and maybe a comment. Pass it to admin team. If you’re moderating, pick up the bundle, check the ones you need, pass it back.
Marking with Turnitin or digital systems:
Open Turnitin
Wait for the PDF to load
Scroll in a tiny window
Write feedback in a minuscule text box
Click save (and check it stuck)
Enter the mark in a second box
Export everything for moderation
Email moderators the right files (or figure out the export/import workaround)
Re-check everything in case you gave someone an 73 when you meant 46 because the system is fiddly
Then repeat For days.
And moderation is worse. Now you’re downloading scripts, re-uploading comments, and using workarounds just to make sure the right scripts land with the right moderator.
Offline marking? It is possible in Turnitin, but only if you know the hidden path, which usually involves a colleague writing a detailed step-by-step guide (as happened in my department last week). Most people don’t even realise it’s there, so we’re all trapped online, fighting a clunky browser window and hoping the WiFi holds.
Admin teams? They’re amazing – but with huge staff cuts across the country, the remaining few are swamped. I spent hours this week just helping my TAs figure out which digital scripts to mark. Our admin was doing a heroic job, but also juggling a million modules and queries at once.
And do you know what? We don’t mind mucking in. I’ve worked in places previously where morale was low, but marking season had a weird sense of camaraderie. You’d pull together, get through it, and feel some end-of-year pride at exam board.
But this latest system is really taking the piss.
This isn’t progress. It’s shifting work downstream.
It’s convenience for the institution, not for us. It’s the productivity paradox. And it’s not making things better for students, either—they get less thoughtful feedback because the interface gets in the way (I don’t do in-text comments anymore).
Is this really progress? The only person who used to type marks into a spreadsheet was admin. Now all of us are typing, clicking, exporting, and re-importing for days.
When systems are designed for efficiency by people who don’t have to use them, you end up spending all your energy fighting the software instead of doing your actual job. These are ironies of so-called automation.
By the way, I took my kid to see Lilo & Stitch at the cinema last week and had to fill up my own Coke Zero at the machine. I pressed the wrong button, ice shot out and landed in my shoe, and I stood there thinking: how did it come to this? That’s DIY life today in a nutshell.
Am I alone? Are you experiencing anything like this? Hit reply and let me know, I want to collect experiences. I will respond to every response. And here’s TurnItIn’s Trustpilot reviews, just for a laugh.
