Turnitin

Turnitin

Overview

Turnitin is a cloud-based service that provides originality checking, online grading, and peer reviews which saves instructors time and provides rich feedback to learners. Turnitin helps instructors check learners' work for improper citation or potential plagiarism by comparing it against a text comparison database.

Turnitin is a tool that:
  1. Helps instructors by indicating sections of a learners' assessment that use very similar words to other documents in their database.
  2. Generates an Originality Report based on the percentage of similarities between learners' assessment and other works in the database. 

Installing the Turnitin app

To install the Turnitin app, administrators:
  1. Click Admin from the primary navigation menu.
  2. Click App Center from the fly-out menu.
  3. Click Install on the Turnitin app in the Assessments/Assignments section.
Info
Please note the business platform defaults to the term assessment, and the academia platform defaults to the term assignment. The terms 'assessment' and 'assignment' are interchangeable in this article. 
Admin, App center with the Turnitin app highlighted

Adding a Turnitin assignment

To add a Turnitin assignment to a course:
  1. Access the course or class.
  2. Click the Assignments tab.
    1. For business users, click the Assessments tab.
  3. Click + Add. 
  4. Click the Integrations tab.
  5. Click Turnitin.

Add assessment, Integrations tab with Turnitin highlighted

The Add Turnitin assigment pop-up displays.
  1. Enter the name of the assignment and configure the details of the assignment based on your school or organization's standards.
  2. Enter learner instructions using the HTML editor.
  3. Click Save.
Add Turnitin assignment pop-up, Overview tab

To edit the assessment's settings:
  1. Access the Turnitin assignment in a course.
  2. Click Turnitin settings in the Options widget in the right panel.
Class, Assignments, Turnitin assignment, Assignment tab with the Turnitin settings link highlighted in the Options widget in the right panel


A pop-up from the Turnitin application displays.
  1. The Title, Instructions, Max Grade, Start Date and Due Date display at the top of the pop-up.
  2. Click Enable PeerMark to turn on the PeerMark feature and allow peer reviews.

Turnitin application assignment settings page with the Enable PeerMark checkbox highlighted

Additional settings are available in the Turnitin Settings pop-up such as:
  1. Allowing late submissions.
  2. Selecting the sources to compare submissions against.
  3. Similarity Report settings.
When you have selected the settings for your assignment:
  1. Click Submit.

Turnitin application assignment settings page, Submission settings, Compare against, and Similarity Report sections

If you enabled PeerMark, you can configure the settings:
  1. Access the assignment in a course.
  2. Click Turnitin Inbox in the Grading widget in the right panel.

Class, Assignments, Turnitin assignment, Assignment tab with the Turnitin inbox link highlighted in the Grading widget in the right panel

A pop-up from the Turnitin application displays.
  1. Click the Peermark drop-down menu.
  2. Select Peermark Setup.

Turnitin application with the Peermark menu active and the PeerMark Setup option selected on the menu

Peermark settings display.
  1. Enter your settings, including review dates and how long peer feedback will be available.
  2. Click Save & Continue.
Turnitin application PeerMark Assignment settings

Once the assignment has been created, you can make it available to learners.
  1. If the course is instructor-led or blended, you can give the assessment to learners by clicking give in the Schedule widget in the right panel of the Turnitin assignment.
  2. If the course is self-paced, the assignment is automatically given.

Class, Assignments, Turnitin assignment, Assignment tab with the give link highlighted in the Schedule widget in the right panel

Learner submissions

To submit an answer for a Turnitin assignment, learners:
  1. Access the Turnitin assignment.
  2. Review the instructions.
  3. Click + Submit answer.
Learner perspective of a Class, Assignments tab, Turnitin assignment with the Submit answer button highlighted


The Turnitin site opens with the Submit File pop-up. Learner's have multiple options to submit an answer:
  1. Learners can click Upload Submission to upload a file.
  2. Learners can click Text Input to type in a text-based answer.
  3. Learners can click the Cloud Submission drop-down to submit an answer via Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox.
After learners have uploaded a file or prepared a text answer:
  1. Learners click Upload and Review to submit the answer.
Turnitin application, Submit File pop-up

A preview of the uploaded file displays, along with the submission title, file size, and word count. To send the submission:
  1. Learners click Submit to Turnitin.

Turnitin application, Submit File pop-up with a file uploaded


Learners are provided with a confirmation message if the submission was successfully uploaded, along with a link to the submission, the uploaded date, and a similarity score.

Turnitin application, Assignment Dashboard with a successful submission confirmation message



If a learner wants to submit another answer and they have not exceeded the maximum number of submissions, they can:
  1. Access the Turnitin assignment.
  2. Click Resubmit answer on the Instructions tab.
Learner perspective of a Class, Assignments tab, Turnitin assignment with the Resubmit answer button highlighted

To view their submissions, learners can:
  1. Access the Turnitin assignment.
  2. Click the Submissions tab.
  3. Click View submissions.
Learner perspective of a Class, Assignments tab, Turnitin assignment, Submissions tab with the View submission button highlighted

Scoring or grading Turnitin assignments

To score or grade a learner's Turnitin assignment submission:
  1. Click Assignments from the course navigation menu.
  2. Click the Turnitin assignment.
  3. Click Turnitin Inbox in the Grading widget in the right panel.
Class, Assignments, Turnitin assignment, Assignment tab with the Turnitin inbox link highlighted in the Grading widget in the right panel
The Assignment Inbox in the Turnitin application displays, with a list of learner submissions. 
  1. Click the title of the assignment to view the submission.

Turnitin application, Assignment Inbox with a learner submission listed

Another way to access learner submissions is through the Grades tab:
  1. Click Assignments from the course navigation menu.
  2. Click the Turnitin assignment.
  3. Click the Grades tab.
    1. Business platform users will click the Scores tab.
  4. Click the PDFPDF iconicon to download a PDF of the learner's submission.
  5. Click the Show/Grade icon to view the submission in Turnitin.
  6. Click the Similarities percentage number to view the submission in Turnitin.

If you click the similarities percentage number or the Show/Grade icon, the learner's submission in the Turnitin application displays.

The Originality report highlights any content that appears to be copied and the sources from where it was copied. A percentage is also shown which indicates how much of the submission appears to have be copied.

To grade the submission:
  1. Enter a score in the upper right section, in front of the max available points.
    1. The score will automatically be registered on your platform and added to the grade book. 

Turnitin application, learner submission with the score highlighted


If you would like to grade a Turnitin assignment using a rubric, you must ignore grades sent from the Turnitin platform. To ignore grades from the Turnitin platform:
  1. Click Assignments from the course navigation menu.
  2. Access the Turnitin assignment.
  3. Click edit in the Assignment widget in the right panel.
  4. Click the Options tab.
  5. Check the Ignore grades sent from Turnitin checkbox.
  6. Click Save.
Course, Assignments, Turnitin assignment with the edit button highlighted in the Options widget and the Edit pop-up, Options tab displaying

Viewing learner comments

Threaded comments allow instructors and learners to maintain a dialog for every submission. To submit a comment, learners can:
  1. Click Assignments from the course navigation menu.
  2. Access the Turnitin assignment.
  3. Add a comment in the Comments widget in the right panel.
Learner perspective of a Class, Assignments tab, Turnitin assignment, Instructions tab with the Comments widget highlighted

When a learner posts a comment, the instructor receives a notification.

Instructor notification of a comment submitted on a scored assignment by a learner

To access the learner's comment for a Turnitin assessment:
  1. Access the class or course with the Turnitin assessment.
  2. Click the Gradebook tab.
    1. Business platform users will click the Scores tab.
  3. Double click the learner's Turnitin assignment grade/score cell.

Class, Gradebook with the score cell highlighted for a Turnitin assignment

A pop-up displays the user's grade as well as the comment. To respond to the comment:
  1. Enter a comment.
  2. Click Post.
The learner will receive a notification that you have responded to their comment.

Class, Gradebook with a Score pop-up that displays a learner comment

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