Assignments and Turnitin

Turnitin

Turnitin is a cloud-based solution with capabilities in originality checking and online grading using their OriginalityCheck and GradeMark tools. Turnitin saves instructors time and facilitates personalized feedback for learners.

OriginalityCheck lets you monitor Assignment submissions and identify potential cases of plagiarism by automatically comparing submissions to an online database of original content. You can then view Originality Reports which highlight key areas, show a breakdown of matching sources, and provide direct links to the matching content.

You can also take advantage of the integrated GradeMark which lets you add comments, inline text, and highlight sections in file submissions, directly from the Assignments tool. Learners can view GradeMark feedback in User Progress under Assignments, in Grades, in Assignments, in User Progress under Grades, and in Content.

OriginalityCheck and GradeMark features are enabled through integration with Turnitin from iParadigms, LLC. For more information about these features, see Turnitin Integration on Brightspace App Finder.

Note: The use of Turnitin combined with the special access features in the Assignments tool is not supported. If you set a due date for a user with special access that is different than the due date set on the Turnitin tab, the Turnitin due date does not change.

Enable Turnitin for an assignment

In order to enable Turnitin for an assignment, make sure your administrator has done the following first: Activated Turnitin OriginalityCheck for your org unit by configuring the variables in d2l.3rdParty.Turnitin.LTI in Config Variable Browser and mapped IMS roles for users in IMS Configuration.

  1. On the navbar, click Assignments.
  2. On the New Assignment or Edit Assignment page, in the Turnitin Integration area, select Enable Turnitin for this folder.
  3. To set more advanced options, click More Options in Turnitin. This opens the Turnitin Assignment window.
  4. Configure the desired settings in the OriginalityCheck area, and the GradeMark area if GradeMark is activated for your org unit.
  5. Click Save and Close.

About Turnitin-enabled assignments

Consider the following when creating or editing your Turnitin-enabled assignment:

  • When creating a new assignment, the name of the folder in Turnitin truncates after 99 characters, even though the Name field accepts 128 characters.
  • When you copy course components from one course to another, confirm that all settings are configured for the Turnitin-enabled assignments in the new course.
  • If you want learners to see instructions on the Submit Files page, you must enter them into the Instructions rich text field in the Properties tab. These instructions are automatically transferred into Turnitin. Any instructions you enter in the Properties tab overwrite instructions entered into Turnitin.
  • If GradeMark is activated for your org unit, in the Turnitin tab, the GradeMark Available to Learners date defaults to the current date and time, plus 7 days. In the Restrictions tab, if you select Has End Date, the GradeMark Available to Learners date automatically sets to the end date, plus 1 day. You can change either of these dates if needed.
  • If you want to automatically transfer scores as draft to Brightspace Learning Environment, on the Turnitin Integration page, select the Automatically sync grades as Draft in Brightspace radio button or select the Manually sync grades as Draft in Brightspace radio button to make it a manual step.
  • If you want learners to see the Originality Score link to Turnitin:
    • Your administrator must map their role to the Learner IMS role.
    • In the Properties tab, ensure Allow learners to see Turnitin similarity scores in their assignment submissions folder is selected. This option is selected by default.
    • In Turnitin, under Optional Settings, ensure Allow learners to view Originality Reports? is set to Yes. This option is set to Yes by default.
  • In the Properties tab, if you select Allow learners to see Turnitin similarity scores in their assignment, the equivalent option in Turnitin called Allow learners to view Originality Reports? is automatically set to Yes.
  • In Turnitin, under Optional Settings, Allow late submissions? defaults to Yes. This means you don't need to change end dates to allow learners to submit late assignments.

About Turnitin-enabled group assignments

Consider the following when creating or editing your Turnitin-enabled group assignment:

  • D2L recommends that you hide the Originality Score since group members cannot follow the link to view the Originality Report.
  • In Turnitin, under Optional Settings, Allow late submissions? defaults to Yes. This means you don't need to change end dates to allow learners to submit late assignments.
  • In Turnitin, under Optional Settings, the Student paper repository option is disabled by default. This is so that Turnitin doesn't think submissions from members of the same group are plagiarized.
Exempt individual users from Turnitin

To exempt individual users from Turnitin, your administrator must enable Turnitin for the Assignments tool for your organization or your course. Turnitin exemptions apply to all assignments within a course.

  1. On the Assignments page, from the More Actions context menu, select Manage Preference for Turnitin®.
  2. The Manage Preference for Turnitin® page displays where you can select individual users to be exempt from Turnitin using the toggles. An X on the toggle means that the learner's submissions are exempted from Turnitin. A checkmark on the toggle means that the learner's submissions will be checked by Turnitin.

Viewing OriginalityCheck reports

You can view Originality Reports from the Submissions page. When a report is available, the status changes from In-Progress to a percentage rating, which indicates the level of matching content.

Viewing a file submission summary

A lower percentage rating indicates that the content is likely original and has not been copied; a higher percentage rating indicates the content is likely not original and has been copied from another source.

The percentage ranges are associated with colors:

  • Blue >= 0 and < 20%
  • Green >= 20 and < 40%
  • Yellow >= 40 and < 60%
  • Orange >= 60 and < 80%
  • Red >= 80 and <= 100%

Click the colored section beside the percentage rating to view the associated Originality Report. The Originality Report is comprised of two panes. The right pane lists all of the matching sources, including the percentage of text that matches and a link to the online content. The left pane displays the submission text using colored highlights to draw attention to the matching content.

What file types are supported in OriginalityCheck?

The following file types are compatible with OriginalityCheck:

  • Microsoft Word (DOC, DOCX)
  • Corel WordPerfect (WPD)
  • Adobe PostScript (EPS)
  • Adobe Acrobat PDF
  • HTML (HTM, HTML)
  • Rich text (RTF)
  • Plain text (TXT)
Troubleshooting: I see an assignment submission showing an icon that says, "An originality report could not be generated for this file".

If there are no other details in the icon's message text, such as the file is not a supported type or does not include enough text, the generic error indicates an issue transferring the file to the Turnitin server. For assistance with troubleshooting, contact D2L Support.