Turnitin is an online resource that assists students on avoiding plagiarism and academic dishonesty through the use of Turnitin. SVSU uses two methods for Turnitin. Review the options, below to find the method that fits your work flow best.
- Turnitin monitors citations and originality in student work
- Turnitin integrates with our LMS (Learning Management System) Canvas
Article Sections
SVSU Faculty Support
Conor Shaw-Draves
Brown Hall 232
989-964-2542
cjdraves@svsu.edu
Creating a Turnitin Assignment (Plagiarism Framework)
This method allows instructors to set up an Assignment to use the Turnitin Framework, uses Speedgrader for grading only. Turnitin based feedback and grading tools are not supported but it is available using the Turnitin LTI. Students can submit multiple files to a single assignment and each submission has its own similarity report.
Creating a Turnitin Assignment in Canvas
- In your Canvas course site, click "Assignments" in the left course navigation menu.
- Click the "+ Assignment" button, top right.
- In the Assignment settings, type in the assignment name, instructions, points, etc. as you normally would for an assignment such as:
- Assignment name
- Assignment description
- Points
- In the Submission Type section, click the drop-down menu and choose “Online” then check the box “File Uploads."
- In the “Plagiarism Review” section, click the drop-down menu; select “Turnitin.”
Note: The Plagiarism Review option won’t show unless you have chosen File upload as your submission type.
Next, adjust your Turnitin Settings (sample image below); we recommend:
Compare submissions against:
- Ensure all four boxes under the Compare submissions against section are checked.
- ✓ Student repository — papers collected by Turnitin globally.
- ✓ Website content — checks webpages
- ✓ Periodicals, journals and publications — checks many journal periodical databases and books.
Similarity Report:
- Under "Similarity Report" section:
- Select Exclude bibliographic materials — prevents matches on bibliographies.
Disable if the assignment includes an annotated bibliography or is only a bibliography.
- Select Exclude quoted materials — assumes that all materials in quotation marks and properly formatted block quotes are not plagiarized.
- Select Exclude small sources — is used to exclude common phrases. Do not set to more than 10 words or 1%.
The recommendation is to Set source exclusion threshold text box to the minimum of 4 words with maximum of 10.
Excluding small matches prevents common phrases or word pairings from appearing in the Originality Report. The filters are used to fine tune reports. With the exception of Translated Matching, you can turn them on or off in individual reports.
- Select Save as default settings — Check this box if you wish to reuse these settings for future assignments.
- In the Show report to students section, choose how you would like to show the originality report to your students.
Turnitin Settings
If needed, see the official help article from Turnitin: Creating an assignment
- Set the assignment dates and then click the “Save & Publish” button to create the Turnitin assignment.
Creating an Assignment (Turnitin LTI)
Enable Turnitin LTI for your assignment. In the Assignment, choose
External Tool in the
Assignment settings. The Assignment needs to be saved first to see
Optional Settings, you will see the
Assignment Inbox and
Analytics tab.
Features include utilizing Turnitin feedback/grading tools, and allows use of Canvas Rubrics whereas the Framework method does not. On the due date, an additional check is run on submitted assignments and the student score will reflect in the Turnitin inbox; the Framework does automatically update in Speedgrader and Gradebook the LTI method does not. The Instructor can also submit or resubmit on behalf of a student, this is not a feature of the Framework. Only one file submission is allowed whereas the Framework allows for multiple submissions with its own Similiarity report.
Optional settings are available using the Turnitin LTI such as whether to allow late submissions and more.
View guide:
Turnitin LTI for Instructors.
Student Instructions on How to Submit a Canvas Assignment Utilizing Turnitin
Open the Assignment, you will see Attempt 1 in the upper-left of your screen along with the Assignment expectations. If there is a Rubric you will also see it attached to the Assignment.
- You can drag a file or upload, once uploaded you will see it attached.
- Make sure that you check the box (bottom-left of your screen) "I agree to the tool's End-User License Agreement This assignment submission is my own, original work otherwise you will not be able to submit your file."
- To the bottom-right, click Submit Assignment.
- After submission you will see a preview of it displayed in the page.
Important NOTE: If the Submit Assignment button is greyed out, check that you checked the box I agree to the tool's End-User License Agreement. Depending on your screen size, you may need to scroll the page to see all the steps in the image above.
Faculty Submit Document to Turnitin on Student Behalf (Work-Around)
The best scenario is for students to use the Canvas interface to submit a document themselves. However, there have been instances where faculty find a need to submit a document on their student's behalf. Two work-arounds, suggested to ITS by SVSU faculty, are:
Work-Around 1:
This is the most efficient way to turn a paper in to get a Turnitin score, as well as define that the document is on behalf of the student.
- Faculty - log in to Turnitin.com.
- Locate the class.
- The Submit option, found within the Turnitin class, allows you to submit a document for a student or without attributing it to a student.
Work-Around 2:
This method results in a Turnitin score and allows a faculty to remain with the Canvas interface instead of logging in directly to Turnitin.com
- Create a "fake" assignment in a Canvas Development Course.
- Submit student papers for a score.
Turnitin Official Support