Turnitin: Canvas Faculty Guide - Using Turnitin's originality assignment tool

This article describes how to create an assignment in Canvas using Turnitin's originality tool and how to read the report for the student submissions.

Instructions:

To Create an Assignment:

Turnitin's plagiarism tool option is only available for "Online" Submission Type assignments that are set to File Upload and/or Text Entry.  If you don't see the Turnitin option in the Assignment, then change the Submission Type to Online and check the File Upload or Text Entry to activate the Turnitin functionality.

1. In your course, create an assignment as you normally would.
2. When selecting Submission Type, select Online.
3. Select File Uploads and/or Text Entry.
4. The Plagiarism Review field appears.  Click the field to select and enable Turnitin.
5. Turnitin Options:   
   1. Bibliography and/or Quotes:  Check the fields to exclude these options from the report. You can enable it here and select to unable it in the report results.
   2. Index all submissions:   By default all student submissions are stored in the Turnitin database. Unchecking this option means future submissions will not match for student submissions.
   3. Generate Similarity Reports:  
      • Immediately - a report is generated at the time of submission
      • Immediately and on due date - a report is generated at time of submission and on the due date. This option is recommended as it allows for a collusion check with your class.
6. Show Report to students: Select the drop down to set an option for showing the report to students; immediately, after the submission is graded, after the due date, or never.  
7. Complete the remaining assignment options and click Save & Publish or Save.

Note:  Supported file types include: MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PostScript, PDF, HTML, RTF, OpenOffice (ODT), WordPerfect and plain text.

When student submits their assignment, they will be prompted to check an option to confirm their submission is their own, original work.

View Turnitin's report for student submissions:

When the similarity report is available the results icon displays in the Canvas gradebook.  When you are ready to review the Turnitin's report, go to the Speedgrader for the assignment. On the right side you will see the icon with a percentage which represents the amount of matching text found in the document. The colors indicate the level of plagiarism found. Click on the percentage number icon to view the detailed report.  A gray icon in the gradebook indicates an originality report has not been generated yet.

Similarity score results:

• Light Blue:  0%  matching text
• Dark Blue:   1-24% matching text
• Yellow:        25-49% matching text
• Orange:      50-74% matching text
• Red:           75-100% matching text

To learn more about reading the report, read the following articles.

1. Accessing the Similarity Report:  https://guides.turnitin.com/hc/en-us/articles/22058715390605-Accessing-the-Similarity-Report-with-Canvas-Plagiarism-Framework
2. Interpreting the similarity score: https://guides.turnitin.com/hc/en-us/articles/23435833938701-Understanding-the-Similarity-Score
3. Exclude self-plagiarism for a student to allow for drafts: https://guides.turnitin.com/hc/en-us/articles/23713493434253-Understanding-the-Similarity-Score#h_01HP5HZHHR21NY1EXBTQXV9NWG
4. How do I print a Similarity report?: https://guides.turnitin.com/hc/en-us/articles/27881575386125-Downloading-and-sharing-the-Similarity-Report

For information about how a student submits an assignment using Turnitin, see the KB article: Canvas - Student Guide - Submitting an assignment using the Turnitin originality assignment tool

Further reading:

Please see the Turnitin's Canvas User Guide for more information: https://guides.turnitin.com/hc/en-us/sections/21069237339917-Canvas

Need additional help?

Please use this link to the Technology Help Desk to locate your local campus contact information.  Use the “Submit a Question” for your campus to enter an online support request.