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Turnitin

Turnitin allows course teams to add assignments to their course sites that allow students' submissions to be automatically checked for plagiarism using the Turnitin system. For more information about Turnitin click here.

What is Turnitin?

Turnitin is a tool that allows users to check for unoriginal text in electronic documents. Documents can be submitted by students via Blackboard and compared against a wide range or documents and journals stored online or in databases. Turnitin compares submissions against current and archived internet websites, databases of journals and periodicals, and Turnitin’s archive of previously submitted student work. Following the comparison, Turnitin generates an originality score that indicates the percentage of text in the submitted document found in the searched targets, and an ‘Originality Report’ that indicates all the matching text in a submitted document and shows the source(s) of the matches.

Turnitin can be employed as a tool that helps users understand and avoid plagiarism, and not merely a policing tool. While Turnitin provides the means for detecting plagiarism it will not catch all instances, nor does every match reveal an act of plagiarism. The Originality Report requires careful interpretation by the course instructor to determine the existence of plagiarism.

Step-by-step Instructions

  1. Log in to Blackboard.
  2. Select the content area (e.g., Assignments) where you want to create the Turnitin assignment.
  3. Click Edit View in the upper right-hand corner. On the right-hand side of the screen, you’ll see the following drop down menu: Turnitin select option
  4. Select Turnitin Assignment, then click Go.
  5. Assignment Title: Give the assignment a name (e.g. Assignment 1). Do not change the name after you finish creating the assignment.
  6. Determine the maximum grade for the assignment and enter it into the Points Possible field. A column will be automatically created in the Gradebook for this assignment (if required).
  7. Show Advanced assignment Options: if you select yes, you will see the options for report generation, to determine whether students to see originality reports from Turnitin, whether to allow late submissions (a late tag will indicate late submissions), and submissions check and comparison options
  8. Availability Options
    1. Start Date: select the time when the students can start submitting the assignment
    2. Due Date: select the for the due date.
    3. Post Date: select the time when the students will be able to see their own marked paper (your comments, observations and corrections); the grade will be visible to them once you grade a paper, unless you decide to hide the assignment column in the Gradebook.
  9. Enter the instructions for completing the assignment.
  10. Generate Originality reports for Submissions: select yes or no, this is a draft assignment.
  11. Click Submit to complete this step of the process.

To find out more about each field to be completed, click on the Help link just above and to the right of the assignment setup window.

By default submitted paper are be added to Turnitin’s student paper database and will be compared against all of Turnitin’s search targets. In addition, Turnitin will generate an originality report immediately that is not available to students, and will not accept any submissions after the due date. You can change these options by selecting yes to show advanced assignment options. This is important if you want students to have access to the originality reports or if you do not wish your students papers to be added to Turnitin’s database.

The Assignment will be available to students on the Start Date.

When the Originality Score and Reports are ready, you can view the whole classes Originality Scores at a glance by clicking on Turnitin Assignments in the Control Panel, then clicking on the assignment. You can then view the Originality Report by clicking on the color-coded Originality Score. Alternatively, you can access the Report through the Grade Book, by clicking on the student’s grade, then electing to view Report.

As you review the Originality Scores and Reports, please bear in mind that they require interpretation. For example, highlighted text may in fact be cited correctly and therefore a good paper with many appropriately cited quotations may generate a high Originality Score (indicating a high percentage of matching text). Please remember that Turnitin reports the possiblity of Plagiarism, but you will need to investigate each report to determine whether it is plagiarism.

To see a sample Report, visit http://www.turnitin.com/static/popups/sample_report.html.

For further information about using Turnitin please contact the Blackboard Support Team (blackboard-support@arts.ac.uk).