How to Create a Turnitin Assignment

What is Turnitin Direct Assignment?

Turnitin is an electronic text matching system that compares text in a student assignment against a database of sources. Turnitin just finds text that matches other sources in the vast Turnitin databases and shows those matches. It is the responsibility of the instructor to determine whether those text matches are a problem or not.

1. Creating a Turnitin Direct Assignment

Enter a course and click the Course Content or Assignment link in the sidebar. Then hover over the "Add an activity or resource" section and select Turnitin Assignment from the list.

If Edit Mode is off, you can enable it by clicking the Edit Mode button in the right-hand corner of the page.

2. General

Submission Type: Submission can be made in three different formats: Copy and Paste, File Upload, and Text Submission.
Number of Parts: Allows for the creation of a multi-part assignment, individual users may submit one piece of work to each part.
Maximum File Size: The setting determines the maximum file size for user submissions to each assignment part. The maximum value you can set this value to is dictated by the value set in course settings, this value is further capped to a maximum file size of 100 Mb which is the maximum allowed filesize for file uploads to Turnitin.
Allow Submission of Any File Type: The setting will allow any file type to be submitted. With this option set to “Yes”, submissions will be checked for similarity where possible, submissions will be available for download and GradeMark feedback tools will be available where possible.
Display Similarity Reports to Students: This allows you to display Turnitin similarity reports to student users. If set to yes the similarity report generated by Turnitin is available for the student to view.
Grade Display: The option sets the display mode for grades the options are displayed as a percentage or displayed as a fraction ie 45/ 60
Auto Refresh Grades / Scores: By default after each call to Turnitin the Moodle integration plug in will attempt to automatically pull down changes made while within Turnitin. You can use this option to turn off this feature, however in order to maintain synchronization between both systems you will need to frequently manually refresh grades and similarity scores from within Moodle.

3. Grade

Grade: Select the type of grading used for this activity. If ‘scale’ is chosen, you can then choose the scale from the drop-down menu. If using point grading, you can then enter the maximum grade available for this activity.
Grade Category: This setting controls the category in which this activity’s grades are placed in the gradebook.
Grade to Pass: This setting determines the minimum grade required to pass. The value is used in activity and course completion, and in the gradebook, where pass grades are highlighted in green and fail grades in red.

4. Assignment Availability

In the availability section, select the date from which you would like to allow submissions from, the assignment's due date, and the cut-off date, and use the checkbox to enable or disable these dates, too.

Start Date: The start date is the date and time students can begin submitting to the assignment.
You can also set a specific time. Please remember that.
Due Date: The due date is the date and time the students’ papers are due for the assignment.
Students are only able to submit once the start date and time has passed.
After the due date and time, students will be blocked unless late submissions are enabled.
Post Date: The post date is the date and time students can begin viewing the comments and grades instructors have left on their papers in GradeMark.
Max Marks: This setting allows the instructor to set a point value for the assignment. Setting a point value allows the grade to be set by rubrics (if used) and sent to the grade book. The default is 100.

5. Similarity Report Options

The option to Display Similarity Reports to Student provides instructors with the ability to control whether students are allowed to view Similarity Reports within each created assignment.
Opt to allow or disallow any file type. By selecting Yes, submissions will be checked for similarity where possible, submissions will be available for download, and online grading tools will be available where possible.
Opt to either store student papers in the standard repository or no repository. By storing papers in the standard repository, this will allow these papers to be checked against in this future. By selecting No repository, submitted papers will not be saved in the Turnitin repository. However, this means that if two students submit the same paper to the same assignment, Turnitin will not find any match.
There are three repository source options available for you to select. Turnitin can check against stored student papers, the Internet, journals, periodicals, and publications. Select Yes or No for each source you would or would not like us to check against. For any source that you do not wish to check against, the similarity score may decrease.

If you do not select Yes for at least one of the Check against... options, then a Similarity Report will not be generated.

Select one of the following three options for Similarity Report Generation Speed:

a) Generate reports immediately (resubmissions are not allowed): Similarity Reports for all submissions will be generated immediately.

If resubmissions are allowed within Moodle, each resubmission will be treated as a unique submission by the student in the Turnitin database. While self-matching is automatically excluded within the same assignment, if a match is found in another assignment, it will match against all of the resubmissions of the student.

b) Generate reports immediately (resubmissions are allowed until due date): Similarity Reports for the initial submission by each student user to this assignment will be generated immediately. Students may resubmit as often as the student wishes until the assignment due date. Similarity Reports for the fourth or subsequent submission will require a 24-hour delay before the Similarity Report begins processing. Only the latest submission is available to the instructor or student. Previous versions are removed. Student submissions will compare against one another within the assignment on the due date and time, which may result in a change in the Similarity Report similarity index and results at the due date and time. This option is typically used when students are self-reviewing and revising their submissions and able to view the Similarity Report. No resubmissions after the due date and time of the assignment.

c) Generate reports on the due date (resubmissions are allowed until the due date) : Similarity Reports will not be generated for any submission until the due date and time of the assignment. Students may resubmit as many times as needed until the due date and time without receiving reports. Resubmissions may not be made after the due date and time of the assignment.

Turnitin can exclude certain elements of a paper from a Similarity Report to provide a more accurate similarity score. You can opt to exclude the following from a Similarity Report:

a) Bibliography: Text appearing in the bibliography, works cited, and references sections can be excluded.

b) Quoted Material: Text appearing in the quotes of student papers can be excluded.

c) Small Matches: Matches that are not of sufficient length can be excluded. The number of words or paper percentage to be excluded is determined by yourself, and entered into the text box.

6. GradeMark Options

a) Attach a rubric to the assignment by selecting a rubric from the drop-down list.

b) Alternatively, select Launch Rubric Manager to edit or create a rubric.

Select Save and return to course or Save and display to complete your assignment.

8. Submission Inbox

You can view the Originality Reports completed for submitted papers by accessing the Assignment Inbox. To do this, navigate to the Assessments link on the sidebar and on View Assignment.

9. Turnitin Feedback Studio

You can open the Turnitin Feedback Studio by clicking a specific student assignment or percentage in the Assignment Inbox. To open the Assignment Inbox, navigate to the Assessments link on the side bar and on View Assignment.

a) Navigation

The Interface has two major layers:

Navigate through papers submitted to an assignment by looking in the top right-hand corner of the navigation frame. Here, you will find arrows to move between papers and a dropdown list that allows you to choose from all papers that have been submitted.

b) Checking a Student’s Work for Appropriate Citations and Quotations

A student"s paper is checked against the search targets selected for the assignment. This may include billions of pages of active and archived internet content, a repository of works previously submitted to Turnitin, and a repository of tens of thousands of periodicals, journals, and publications.

It is perfectly natural for an assignment to match against some of our databases. If your student has used quotes and has referenced correctly, there will be instances where we will find a match. The similarity score simply makes you aware of any potential problem areas in a student"s paper; you can then use this tool as part of a larger process, in order to determine if the match is or is not acceptable.

c) The Matching Content, on the Paper, in Context

Clicking on the small boxes containing numbers on your student"s paper will cause the source box to appear on the paper, revealing where in the source the text has been identified, in the context of the original source. Alternatively, you can click on the Match Overview button and click on sources in order to view the list of matching sources. This will help you to better interpret the instance of similarity.

d) Typing Inline Comments

Inline comments allow you to leave text directly on top of your student"s paper. The comment will automatically be saved. You can move a comment by clicking and dragging it to where you would like to place it.

You can add text, convert text to hyperlinks, and apply simple formatting to your comment for greater clarity in your feedback.

To convert comments to QuickMarks for easy reuse in the assignment you"re grading or in other assignments, you can convert a bubble comment into a QuickMark. QuickMarks allows you to create a library of feedback that might be applicable on multiple occasions, to multiple students, across multiple classes and assignments.

e) QuickMarks

You can access a library of feedback by selecting the QuickMarks icon from the navigation bar. Use the search box to find a specific QuickMark. Once you've selected the QuickMark you"d like to add to the paper, drag it from the panel and drop it onto the relevant part of the paper.

f) Voice Comments and Feedback Summary

Access voice comments from the Feedback Summary side panel, where you can also provide overall text-based feedback on a paper. A voice comment can be up to three minutes long.

g) Rubrics

Rubric scorecards help you to evaluate student work based on defined criteria and scales. They can also be created by your account administrator and shared to all instructors on an account. Instructors can create and share their own rubric scorecards by sending a rubric or grading form file to another instructor, who can upload it for use in their classes.

h) Assign a Grade from the Paper View

You can quickly assign a grade to a paper at the top of the page by inputting the grade in the relevant field. This will overwrite any grades calculated via a rubric or grading form. Turnitin automatically updates the score into your Blackboard Learn grade center. If there is a delay, you can manually sync the score in Blackboard Learn by choosing Refresh Submissions on the right-hand side of the Submission Inbox panel.