Turnitin Basics

Turnitin provides faculty with a web-based plagiarism prevention service, class management tools, and digital grading. Submitted papers are compared for matches or similar text in the repository and results are made available in an easy-to-read Originality Report. Students can receive grades and comments for all submissions using the GradeMark assessment feature. Turnitin also allows for review and graded assignments in a paperless environment.

Important: Turnitin can be used in two separate ways, either directly through the Turnitin website or through integration within Blackboard. The documentation below will walk you through how to use Turnitin within Blackboard. This page will walk you through how to use Turnitin outside of Blackboard.

Note: if you want to use your iPad with Turnitin, see the instructions below to learn how.

Turnitin integrates directly into Blackboard, so that assignments submitted by students can be automatically checked against the Turnitin repository and grades shared with students directly through the Blackboard Grade Center.

  1. Within a content area in your course, click on Assessment and choose Turnitin Direct Assignment.

  2. Enter the Assignment Name and the Overall Grade.

  3. Add the number of parts for the assignment. This is primarily used for assignments with drafts to prevent Turnitin from checking against other versions of the same paper. If you are using Turnitin for a single assignment, you would choose 1.

  4. Assign a Start Date (the day the assignment is available), the Due Date (the day the assignment is due), and the Post Date (the day grades are shown to students).

    • The post date should be a date that you know you will have the grades completed. You can always go back in and edit the post date if you finish grading early. Remember: students won't see any grades unless the post date has passed.

  5. Review the Options for Exclusion. The default options should be fine, but you can adjust based on your assignment

  6. The Account Specific and Repository options should be fine as is.

    • E-rater is a grammar checker, but generally provides an overload of information so it is usually easier to not enable it. You can always review them more closely and adjust based on the individual assignment

  7. The Grades section should stay as is as this is how Turnitin connects to Blackboard Grade Center.

  8. Under Assignment, there are a few options to choose from. The option you choose is based on your individual preferences and the assignment.

    • Report generation speed sets how soon students see their assignment's report. There are three options:

      1. Generate reports immediately (students cannot resubmit): this is the toughest of the options as it prevents students from making any changes/learning from their report;

      2. Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date) After three resubmissions: this is the middle option that allows for some flexibility in resubmitting while still preventing students from making too many changes;

      3. Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date): this option is the laxest of all of the options and allows students the most flexibility with changes.

    • Blackboard Group can set up a group assignment for submission. If you use this option, you would have to create Turnitin assignments for each group you expect an assignment from.

    • Grading schema: choose between score, text, letter, percentage, and complete/incomplete options for reporting grades.

    • If there was a rubric that you wanted to use to grade assignments, you could build a rubric in Turnitin to use under TurnitinRubric. Note: the rubrics in Turnitin are different from rubrics within Blackboard.

    • If you would like students to see their originality reports you will need to change that to Yes.

    • Allow late submissions would allow students to submit past the due date. Any item submitted past the due date will be highlighted in red.

    • When you are done, click Submit.

Viewing Originality Reports

  1. Once the student has submitted their work, you can check your Submission Inbox tab to see the files.

  2. Click on the % of Similarity, shown in the example below, to access the full Originality Report. Note: the Similarity Report may take longer to show up during busier times of the semester and/or if your students submit their papers all at once.

  3. The full Originality Report will be displayed in a new window. You will see the sources of any text that matches sources from the repository and the percentage of the paper from those sources to the right.

The image has a gray background. There are five lines of text. Each line starts with a color and the color of the text is the same as the name. The first line is Blue - (no matching text). The second line is Green - (1 word -24% matching text). The third line is Yellow - (25-49% matching text). The fourth line is Orange - (50-74% matching text). The fifth line is Red - (75-100% matching text).
Screenshot of Turnitin information for an assignment. There is a table with two rows and ten columns. The header columns are Paper title/ author; Paper ID; Date Submitted; empty; an icon of a slanted box with a check in it; a filter icon; a bar graph icon; empty; empty; empty. The row below has the following text: Test Student - Final Paper (with a blue paper icon); mix of numbers for the paper ID; Jun 9th, 2015 10:58 am; an eye icon, a pencil icon; a dash and %; a red square with 92%; a horizontal line with an arrow pointing away from it; a horizontal line with an arrow pointing to it; a trash can icon.

Important: The reports do not reflect Turnitin’s assessment of whether a paper has or has not been plagiarized. Originality Reports are simply tools to help you find sources that contain text similar to submitted papers. The decision to deem any work plagiarized must be made carefully, and only after careful examination of both the submitted paper and the suspect sources.

Providing Feedback With Grademark

  1. On the submissions inbox, click on the pencil icon (this might show up as the grade for the assignment if you've already graded it) shown in the example above, to begin using GradeMark.

  2. The full assignment will be displayed in a new window. From this window you can:

    • Add a Comment by clicking on any portion of the paper, adding your comment, and clicking Save.

    • Add a QuickMark Comment by dragging one from the right panel onto the paper or add additional comments of your own.

    • Add General Comments in both text and audio form on the overall paper. Click the icon in the side panel.

    • View all the comments added to the paper from the Comments List tool at the bottom of the side panel.

    • Add Rubrics to the paper that you can use during the grading process.

Screenshot of Turnitin feedback options. There is a outline blue vertical bar with four sections. The first section has a dark blue background with a stack of white squares overlapping. The second section has a solid blue square with a white checkmark. To the right of it, there is pink text that says Quickmarks. The next section shows the outline of a blue square with a pencil icon. To the right of it, there is pink text that says General text and/or audio feedback. The last section shows eight squares (the first row has two squares and the the second and third rows have three squares). To the right, there is text that says Turnitin Rubric.

Adding A Grade

  1. Go to the top right of the screen and look for the grade box.

  2. Add the grade.

  3. Close the Feedback Studio window.

  4. The newly-added grade should show up in the submissions inbox.

  5. If the grade doesn't show up, go to the Refresh button in the top left and click Refresh Submissions. This should make the grade show up.

A gray box with two thin, black lines in it. To the right, there is a blue slash and the number 100.
The top left is a white, dropdown field. To the right, there is a gray box with an icon that has two circular arrows, text that reads Refresh, and a black triangle pointing down. Below that is a white background with text that says Refresh Submissions and Force Refresh Submissions.
Across the top there is a white bar. In the top left, there is text that says Tools. Below that is a gray bar with four icons in it. They icons are a square made out of eight solid blue boxes (one box is missing); a solid blue square with a white checkmark in it, an icon with gears of various sizes (this has a pink outline of a square around it), and a slanted rectangle with a silhouette of a person. Below that is a yellow horizontal rectangle that says Launch Turnitin PeerMark Manager.

PeerMark Assignments Within Blackboard

Once you create a Turnitin Assignment you may choose to add a peer review component for students to complete. This feature allows students to see the work of another student and provide feedback on it based on a set of specific questions the instructor has provided.

  1. From the Submission Inbox, click on PeerMark Manager (shown above) to create your PeerMark assignment.

  2. Click the plus icon in the upper right corner of the window to create a new PeerMark assignment

  3. Set the appropriate dates and point value for this activity, as well as for instructions to students. Make sure to review the Additional Settings area. When done, click Save & Continue.

  4. On the next page add your PeerMark questions that students will use to review the work of others.

  5. The Distribution tab will show the assignment distribution amongst students. Once you're done, close the window.

When students log in, they will look for the PeerMark Review icon under Tools in their view, as shown below.

Screenshot of Turnitin assignment submissions. Across the top, there are three tab options: Part 1 (selected), Part 2, and Part 3. Part 2 and 3 are in blue. Within the Part 1, there is a table. The first row has six columns. They are Status; Start Date; Due Date; Post Date; Grand Total; and Total. The next row has the following information: Active (with a blue background); 2021 Feb 25 10:35; 2021 Mar 11 10:35; 2021 Mar 02 08:35; 100: icon of a slanted rectangle with the outline of a person. There is the outline of a pink box around it. Below, there is a yellow horizontal rectangle. To the right, there is a green box with a white "i" in it.

Using Turnitin On Your iPad

Currently, if you open a Turnitin assignment from your Blackboard course in Safari on your iPad, you can't add comments or other items directly to the paper. The following steps will allow you to open your class via the Turnitin app and add comments/grades. Note: you will have to follow these steps for each class that you want to review on your iPad with the Turnitin app.

  1. Download the Turnitin Feedback Studio app

  2. Log into your Blackboard course on Safari on your iPad and go to the assignment

  3. Open a student's submission by clicking on the pencil icon

  4. Once the Feedback Studio opens, scroll down to the gear icon in the bottom right

  5. Select the "i" icon

  6. This will open a Submission Details box. At the bottom of the box, enter your email address and select Email Me

  7. You should then get an email with a link that will open the app with your classes information

  8. You should then be able to add comments, grade, and review the Turnitin assignment

  9. When you're done adding your comments/grading the individual assignment, click close in the top left.

Screenshot of Turnitin Submissions Inbox. There is a table with a header row and then two rows of data below. The header row has eight columns. The first five have icons or text in them, they are Date Submitted, an eye icon, a checkmark icon, a triangular filter icon, and a bar graph icon. The first row of data reads: Sept 28th, 2021 11:29am in the first column; a gray eye icon in the second column; a blue pencil icon in the third column, a dash in the fourth column, a yellow triangle in the fifth column; a thin blue line with an arrow pointing up in the sixth column; a thin blue line and an arrow pointing down in the seventh column; and a garbage can icon in the last column. The second row has Jul 26th, 2021 2:43 ppm in the first column; a gray icon in the second column; a blue pencil in the third column with a pink square around it; the number 30 in the fourth column; a yellow square and the number 45 in the fifth column; a thin blue line with an arrow pointing up in the sixth column; a thin blue line and an arrow pointing down in the seventh column; and a garbage can icon in the last column.
Screenshot of the Turnitin Feedback Studio. There is a horizontal menu that has three boxes. The first box has a gray line with an arrow pointing down. The second box has a circle with an "i" in it. The third box has a gear icon in it. The second and third squares have pink outlines.
Screenshot of Turnitin Feedback Studio. There is a white dialog box on top of a window. The dialog box has bolded text in the top left that says Feedback Studio for iOS (and a registered trademark icon). Below that is body text that says Receive a unique link to access this class in your Feedback Studio for iOS app. In blue text, it says Learn more. Below that is a rectangular box with a pink outline. There are two rectangular boxes inside the pink box. They both have bolded text above them. The text reads Email and Confirm Email. Below this, there is a gray button that says Email me.
When using educational technology tools, be FERPA aware. To learn more, visit the Registrar's FERPA Guidelines site.